The 2022–23 Ranji Trophy was the 88th 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.
It was played from 13 December 2022 and was finished on 19 February 2023.
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 ...
were the defending champions, winning their first Ranji Trophy title
previous season.
[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.]
During this season, Sikkim hosted Ranji Trophy matches for the first time.
Narayanan Janani,
Vrinda Rathi and
Gayathri Venugopalan became the first female umpires to officiate in the Ranji Trophy.
In the final,
Saurashtra
Saurashtra, Sourashtra, or variants may refer to:
** Kathiawar, also called Saurashtra Peninsula, a peninsula in western India
** Saurashtra (state), alias United State of Kathiawar, a former Indian state, merged into Bombay State and since its d ...
defeated
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 ...
by 9 wickets to win their second title.
Format
Unlike the
last season, where all teams competed for the same trophy, this season BCCI enforced the
Promotion and relegation
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...
format. This Ranji trophy had two winners to improve the standard and competitiveness of the tournament. The teams were divided into two categories named as Elite category having 32 teams split into four groups, with Plate category having 6 teams. The Elite group teams played each other once, with the top two teams from each group qualified for the quarter-finals. In the Plate Group also teams played each other once, but the top four teams qualified for the plate group knockouts, with the bottom two teams playing for the fifth and sixth positions, and another playoff for the third and fourth positions took place.
The two Plate finalists will be promoted to the Elite group for the next season, 2023–24, while the bottom two teams of all the four Elite groups combined - factoring in both points and the quotient will be relegated to Plate group.
The teams were placed in the following groups:
League stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Plate Group
Plate Knockouts
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Plate Semi-finals
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Plate Final
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
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Semi-finals
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Final
Statistics
* On 2 January, Saurashtra bowler
Jaydev Unadkat became the first player to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Ranji Trophy match.
* On 12 January, Mumbai batter
Prithvi Shaw made second highest score in an inning in Ranji history by a batter. He scored 379 runs.
* On 19 January, Vidarbha defended a target of 73 runs against Gujarat, which is the lowest target defended in the Ranji Trophy.
Notes
References
External links
Series home at ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranji Trophy, 2022-23
2022 in Indian cricket
2023 in Indian cricket
Domestic cricket competitions in 2022–23
Ranji Trophy seasons