Madan Naisadrai Raiji (7 April 1922 – 29 March 2010) was an Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

, mostly for

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, from 1941 to 1950. Raiji was a leg-spin bowler and batsman who batted at various positions in the order. In his first first-class season, aged 19, he took 5 for 54 in the second innings when the

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

beat the

Parsees Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim co ...

in the final of the

Bombay Pentangular The Bombay Quadrangular was an influential cricket tournament held in Bombay, British India between 1892–93 and 1945–46. At other times it was known variously as the Presidency Match, Bombay Triangular, and the Bombay Pentangular. Presidency ...

in December 1941. He took his best first-class figures in 1946–47, when he took 6 for 40, as well as making 59, the highest score of the match, during the Bombay Festival Tournament. His best season was 1947–48, when in six matches he took 26 wickets at an average of 24.30 and made 466 runs at an average of 51.77, including his highest score of 170 in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

semi-final against

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, when he also took five wickets in Bombay's innings victory. Earlier in the season he had scored 130 in 145 minutes and taken 3 for 58 and 5 for 95 in Bombay's innings victory over

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. Raiji took part in the highest-scoring first-class match of all time, the Ranji Trophy semi-final between Bombay and Maharashtra in 1948–49. Of the 2376 runs in the match, which Bombay won, he made 27 and 75 batting at number nine, and took no wickets for 138 runs. Raiji's older brother

Vasant Basant or Vasant is a Hindustani classical raga. Raga Every raga has a strict set of rules which govern the number of notes that can be used; which notes can be used; and their interplay that has to be adhered to for the composition of a tu ...

was also a first-class cricketer, before becoming a cricket writer and centenarian. The brothers made their first-class debuts in the same match in the Ranji Trophy in November 1941.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raiji, Madan 1922 births 2010 deaths Sportspeople from Vadodara Hindus cricketers Mumbai cricketers Indian cricketers