Stats Analysis

Nadeem's wicket bag and Iyer's Mount 1000

Stats round-up from the quarterfinals stage of the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy

Bharath Seervi
07-Feb-2016
Shahbaz Nadeem became the first bowler since 2006-07 to take 50 or more wickets in a Ranji Trophy season  •  PTI

Shahbaz Nadeem became the first bowler since 2006-07 to take 50 or more wickets in a Ranji Trophy season  •  PTI

0 Instances of Assam reaching the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy, before this season (excluding the Plate League). In 2006-07, they reached the semi-finals of the Plate League. (The Ranji Trophy was split into two groups then, with the top teams playing in the Super League, and the lesser teams playing in the Plate League.) This season, they defeated Punjab by 51 runs in Valsad to reach the last-four stage.
788 Target set by Madhya Pradesh against Bengal, the fifth-highest in Ranji Trophy history. The highest of all is 959 set by Bombay against Maharashtra in Pune in the semi-final of 1948-49 Ranji Trophy, which is also the highest across all first-class matches. With the 355-run win, Madhya Pradesh have reached the Ranji Trophy semi-finals for the first time since 2005-06. They had reached the Plate League semi-finals thrice in last ten years. The win is also their biggest in first-class matches beating the 287-run win against Maharashtra in Indore in 1994-95 and Bengal's second-biggest defeat behind their 420-run loss to Bombay in 1958-59 final.
432 Runs scored by Bengal in the fourth innings, in reply to Madhya Pradesh's target of 788. It is the third-highest fourth-innings total in Ranji Trophy. The two higher than this are: 604 by Maharashtra against Bombay in 1948-49 (target of 959) and 492 by Holkar against Bombay in 1944-45 final (target of 867).
3 Number of wins by an innings for Saurashtra this season, the most for them in a single Ranji season. They won by an innings and 63 runs against Jammu and Kashmir in their last match in the group stage and then by innings and 85 runs in the quarter-final against Vidarbha. They had won by an innings and 118 runs in the first match of this season against Tripura. They had two such wins in the 2008-09 season and only seven innings victories till the last season. There hasn't been an instance in the last ten years where a team won by an innings in the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy.
2 Batsmen who have completed 1000 runs in a Ranji Trophy season at a younger age than Shreyas Iyer. The Mumbai batsman, aged 21 years, six months and 30 days, got there on the third day of the quarter-final against Jharkhand. The youngest to achieve the feat is Rusi Modi at 20 years, three months and 24 days in 1944-45, while Ajinkya Rahane is next at 20 years, six months and 29 days in 2008-09 (age as on the day of 1000th run). Modi was also the first batsman to aggregate 1000 or more runs in a Ranji Trophy season. All the three youngest to do so have all been for Mumbai. KL Rahul comes next at 21 years, 9 months and 13 days for Karnataka in 2013-14. In the same innings, Iyer also completed 2000 runs in his first-class career. Click here for highest run-getters in this season of Ranji Trophy.
2006-07 Last time a bowler took 50 or more wickets in a Ranji season, before Shahbaz Nadeem did it for Jharkhand this time. Ranadeb Bose had taken 57 wickets for Bengal in 2006-07. There were four bowlers who took 50 or more wickets in the 1999-00 season (Kanwaljit Singh 62, Venkatapathy Raju 52, Utpal Chatterjee 52 and Aashish Kapoor 50) and only two since then. Nadeem is also the first from Jharkhand to take 50 or more wickets in a season. Previous highest for Jharkhand was also by him: 42 wickets in 2012-13 season.
3 Number of Man-of-the-Match awards for Akhil Herwadkar in this Ranji Trophy season for Mumbai, the joint-most with four other players - Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohan Prem and Rajat Paliwal. His 107 and 3 for 26 against Jharkhand in the quarterfinal in Mysore got him his third Man-of-the-Match award.
704 The previous-highest aggregate by an Assam batsman in a Ranji Trophy season, by Dheeraj Jadhav in 2011-12 at an average of 176 in nine innings. Arun Karthik has gone past him this season with 728 runs at 49.15, with two games left, potentially The next two highest aggregates are also by Jadhav: 626 runs at 48.15 in 2013-14 and 623 at 56.63 in 2012-13. Similarly, the 47 wickets by Krishna Das are also the most, by far, for an Assam bowler in a season. Sarupam Purkayastha had taken 36 wickets in the last season. 32 wickets by Arup Das this season are the third-most for an Assam bowler in a season.
8/83 Figures of Arup Das against Punjab, the best in a Ranji quarter-finals since Harshal Patel's 8 for 40 for Haryana against Karnataka in 2011-12. These are fifth-best figures for Assam and fourth-best by any bowler against Punjab in first-class matches.
401 Wickets for Pragyan Ojha in first-class career. He picked up his 400th wicket in the quarter-final match playing for Bengal against Madhya Pradesh.
0 Number of half-centuries for Ashok Dinda in his first-class career, before this quarter-final match, in 108 innings. He scored 52 off 42 balls batting at No. 9 in the fourth innings for Bengal against Madhya Pradesh. It is his maiden half-century across all formats - First-class, List-A and T20 cricket. His previous best was 45 against Haryana in the last Ranji Trophy. Last player to score 50 or more at No. 9 in the fourth-innings in Ranji Trophy was Jammu and Kashmir's Samiullah Baig in 2013-14.

Bharath Seervi is stats sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @SeerviBharath