Ranji Trophy 2017-18: Round 1 – Statistical Highlights

The first round of the Ranji Trophy 2017-18 season witnessed some exciting games contested till the last possible over of the day to secure an outright victory. This round witnessed some new records in the tournament’s history and a few old records were shattered. A handful of India’s Test team players made their presence felt during this round as well.

Here we look at all the stats and records created during the first round of Ranji Trophy 2017/18.

1 – Ishant Sharma led Delhi for the first time in his career. This was also his first game as a captain in his professional career. Ishant picked up a 5-wicket haul in Assam’s first innings.

1 – Cheteshwar Pujara led Saurashtra for the first time in Ranji Trophy after playing 54 matches as a player. Pujara led his domestic team in List A and T20 games, but never in a FC match.

6 – Yusuf Pathan became only the 6th player from Baroda to score hundreds in both the innings of a Ranji Trophy game with only two other playing achieving this in the last 66 years. This is also the 2nd time Yusuf scored twin tons in a FC game as he scored a hundred and a double hundred in the Duleep Trophy final in 2010.

13 – Number of sixes Yusuf hit in the game against Madhya Pradesh. These are the joint 3rd most by any player in a Ranji Trophy game. Rishabh Pant hit 21 sixes in a game last season in which Ishan Kishan cracked 14. Shakti Singh smacked 14 sixes in a game in 1990/91 while Ravi Shastri also nailed 13 when he recorded the fastest double century in the 1984/85 season.

19 – Number of dismissals that were in the form of lbw in the game between Uttar Pradesh and Railways. These are the joint 2nd most lbw dismissals in a FC game and the joint most in a Ranji Trophy game. Patiala-Delhi game in 1953/54 also recorded 19 lbw dismissals.

20 – Andhra were on the verges of chasing down the target set by Tamil Nadu in the first round game as they ran out of time in their attempt. This could have been Andhra’s 2nd win in the Ranji Trophy over Tamil Nadu while they had tasted their lone win in 48 attempts back in 1975. Tamil Nadu won 30 games while 17 games including this ended in a draw.

94 – The 94-run target Uttar Pradesh failed to chase against Railways is the 2nd lowest target a team failed to chase in the Ranji Trophy. Delhi failed while chasing a target of 78 runs against Bihar in 1948/49.

338 – Prashant Chopra became the first triple centurion in 2017-18 Ranji season. His 338-run innings was the 10th highest individual score in Ranji Trophy. The 360 runs he scored in the game including 22 in the 2nd innings is the 9th highest match aggregate in Ranji Trophy for any player.