Ranji Trophy: New Season But a Usual Start

The 2024 edition of the Ranji Trophy got underway with top states in action across the length and breadth of the country. The opening round of India’s premier domestic competition saw plenty of games get hit by extreme weather conditions in the northern part of the country. The fixture between Vijay Hazare Trophy finalists Haryana and Rajasthan was the worst hit as only 42 overs were bowled across four days at Lahli. Even games in Delhi and Chandigarh saw either delayed starts or early stumps as light and visibility wasn’t good enough to allow a full quota of 90 overs to be bowled on the day.

Elsewhere, it looked like business as usual as Cheteshwar Pujara slammed his 17th double hundred, eighth in the Ranji Trophy, to help Saurashtra pocket three points from their season opener vs Jharkhand in Rajkot. There was a 12-year-old debutant for Bihar, Pondicherry thumped Delhi for an outright win and it resulted in Yash Dhull getting sacked as captain.

Here’s a quick recap of the major talking points from first-round action:

The giant: Pujara and his good old habit of scoring daddy hundreds in the domestic circuit continued as he notched up his 8th double ton in the Ranji Trophy. The right-hander, out of India’s Test squad at the moment, scored an unbeaten 356-ball 243 and helped Saurashtra score a mammoth 578/4 vs Jharkhand. He couldn’t have timed his innings better as the selectors are set to pick the squad for England Tests soon and this should serve as a timely reminder that he is in good touch.

Two Bihar XIs turn up and a 12-year-old debuts: Mumbai registered an innings win over Bihar at the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna but there was a lot of off-field drama. Before the toss, two XIs, one fielded by the secretary and one by the president of the Bihar Cricket Association, turned up and it was after a lot of chaos that the president’s XI took the field. In the XI was 12-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi who opened the innings and was one of the three batters who managed to enter double digits during the fixture. The southpaw scored 19 and 12 in the two innings.

Pondicherry stun Delhi, DDCA sacks Yash Dhull: It was a dark morning for Delhi cricket when Pondicherry thumped them by nine wickets in their season opener. The hosts had the services of Ishant Sharma and Navdeep Saini for this fixture but a listless batting display saw them get bundled out for 148 and 145 in their two outings. Hours after the defeat, the selection panel sacked Yash Dhull as captain and handed the responsibility to Himmat Singh, who led Delhi to a famous win over Mumbai last season and also to Buchi Babu final last year.

Riyan Parag and dropped catches: Following on against Chhattisgarh, Riyan Parag came up with a plan. See and swing. During his 87-ball 155, laced by 11 boundaries and 12 massive sixes, Parag went after everything and had luck on his side. Assam’s skipper was dropped plenty of times and some of them were regulation takes. He didn’t stop and continued with the wild swings to ensure Assam put up a fight. The talented right-hander hit the second-fastest Ranji Trophy hundred off just 56 balls, continuing with his dominating run in the domestic circuit.

More tons: Apart from Pujara and Parag, there were plenty of hundreds in the opening round. Kishan Lyngdoh, Agni Chopra, Gahlaut Rahul Singh, Devdutt Padikkal, Sumit Singh, Ricky Bhui, Krishnamurthy Siddharth, Ankit Bawne, Priyam Garg, Sridam Paul, Aryan Juyal, Ram Gurung and Mohit Jangra also reached three-figures for their respective teams.

The Gourav Yadav show: After playing for Madhya Pradesh, the seamer moved to Pondicherry this season and made a huge impact in their Ranji opener where he picked 10 wickets vs Delhi. In both the innings, he made the red cherry talk and gave nothing away. After the 7 wickets in the first innings, he added 3 in the second to pick his first ten-wicket match haul in the First Class circuit.