The 2021–22 Ranji Trophy was the 87th season of the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy is a premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The teams representing regional and state cricket associations participate. BCCI ...

, the premier

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

tournament in India. The tournament was split into two phases, with the league stage being played from 17 February to 15 March 2022, and the knockout phase played from 6 to 26 June 2022. Due to the delayed start of the tournament because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, teams were split into eight Elite groups, instead of five as per previous editions, and the Plate Group. The seven teams that won their Elite Group with the best points progressed to the knockout phase. They were joined by the winner of the pre-quarter-final match between the Elite Group winning team with the fewest points and the winner of the Plate Group. In the opening round of fixtures, Sakibul Gani of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

became the first player to score a triple century on their first-class debut. In their Plate Group match against

Mizoram Mizoram is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its Capital city, capital and largest city. It shares 722-kilometres (449 miles) of international borders with Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar t ...

, he scored 341 runs. Following the conclusion of the group stage,

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

had all won their respective groups to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

won Group H and

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

won the Plate Group to advance to the preliminary quarter-final match. In the first innings of the preliminary quarter-final, Jharkhand were bowled out for 880 runs, the fourth-highest team total in the Ranji Trophy. Jharkhand then extended their lead to 1,008 runs, the biggest ever lead in first-class cricket, progressing to the quarter-finals based on their first innings lead. Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh all won their quarter-final matches to advance to the semi-finals. Bengal also reached the semi-finals, after they drew their match against Jharkhand, progressing in the tournament due to having a first-innings lead. In the first semi-final, Madhya Pradesh beat Bengal by 174 runs to reach their first final in the tournament since the 1998–99 edition. The second semi-final, between Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh was drawn, with Mumbai advancing to the final on their first-innings lead. In the final, Madhya Pradesh beat Mumbai by six wickets to win their first Ranji Trophy title.Madhya Pradesh previously competed in the Ranji Trophy as Holkar cricket team, winning the tournament four times between 1945–46 and 1952–53. This was their first win as Madhya Pradesh. It qualified for the 2023-24 Irani Cup.

Background

The 2021–22 Ranji Trophy was initially scheduled to take place from 13 January to 20 March 2022. The previous edition of the tournament was cancelled due to the

. However, on 4 January 2022, the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

(BCCI) confirmed that the tournament had been postponed due to an increase of COVID-19 cases in India. The BCCI announced that they would try to host the league stage of the Ranji Trophy before the start of the 2022 Indian Premier League in April. Later in January 2022, the BCCI said that they were looking at the possibility of holding the tournament in two phases, from February to March, and June to July. Originally, the tournament was scheduled to start on 16 November 2021, but was later postponed to 5 January 2022 and again to 13 January 2022. As per previous editions, the tournament would have been divided into six groups, with six teams in five Elite Groups and eight teams in the Plate Group. The winners of each Elite Group would have progressed directly to the quarter-finals, with the second-placed teams and the winner of the Plate Group playing in pre-quarters matches to determine the final eight teams.

Teams

The teams were placed in the following groups:

League stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Plate Group

Knockout stage

Preliminary quarter-final

Quarter-finals

---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

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Final

Statistics

Most runs

Most wickets

Broadcasters

Star Sports and

Disney+ Hotstar Disney+ Hotstar, also known as JioHotstar or simply Hotstar, is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Disney Star. The brand was introduced as Hotstar for a streaming service carrying content from Di ...

aired selective matches on TV and internet respectively. BCCI's website broadcast highlights and scores.

Notes

References

External links

Series home at ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranji Trophy, 2021-22 2021 in Indian cricket 2022 in Indian cricket Ranji Trophy, 2021-22 Domestic cricket competitions in 2021–22 Ranji Trophy seasons