Ranga Sohoni

Ranga Sohoni toured England in 1946, Australia in 1947-48 and played against England at home in 1951-52 but was not very successful with bat or ball - his right-arm medium-paced bowling caused little worry to English and Australian batsmen. As a useful tailender, he made some valuable contributions. In his first Test, the last-wicket pair of Sohoni and Hindlekar played out the last 13 minutes to help India draw the match. In his next match, coming in at No. 9, he scored 29 not out to propel the Indian total along. In what proved to be his final Test, he played a small part in India wriggling out of trouble by getting 28 at No 10.

Sohoni however had a much better record in the Ranji Trophy in which he emerged as a genuine allrounder. He scored 2162 runs (34.87) including seven centuries and took 139 wickets (24.49). His highest score was 218 not out for Maharashtra against Western India in 1940-41. That was his best season - he scored 655 runs at an average of 131.00. He made his Ranji Trophy debut at 17 and later captained Maharashtra and Bombay. In a long first class career that stretched almost 30 years, Sohoni scored 4245 runs (28.68) and took 232 wickets (32.34).
Partab Ramchand