Ranji Trophy League Stage Round-up: Vidarbha on Track for Title Defence, Kerala Continue Rise

Cricketnext Staff | Updated: January 11, 2019, 2:32 PM IST

With the last round of Ranji Trophy 2018-19 matches coming to a close, the quarter-finalists of the season are decided.

Kerala made a last ditch entry on the final day beating Himachal Pradesh by five wickets. It's the second successive year they're making it to the knockouts.

The last round saw Rajasthan qualifying after beating Tripura by an innings and 77 runs. Baroda were victorious too, beating Karnataka under two days, but couldn’t qualify for the quarter finals. Uttarakhand sealed their qualification from the Plate group with an innings win over Mizoram.

Defending champions Vidarbha made it as the top team from Group A. Mumbai, the most successful domestic team in Indian history, failed to make it to the knockouts.

Group A and B

Vidarbha, Saurashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat sealed their spots in the quarter-finals. Vidarbha and Saurashtra ended as the top two teams while Karnataka with 27 and Gujarat with 26 also made it through from Group A.

Kerala became the only side to qualify from Group B with 26 points after their brilliant run-chase on the final day.

Group C

Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh qualified from Group C with 51 and 41 points after seven and five wins respectively in nine matches. Jharkhand missed out on a qualification despite coming close with 40 points.

Plate Division

Uttarakhand sealed their quarter berth with 44 points and six wins in eight matches. Bihar also had six wins but lost one game while another was washed out. Uttarakhand has suffered no losses in their entire campaign so far.

Top batsmen

Milind Kumar leads the run chart after the league phase with 1331 points but with Sikkim not having qualified, he does not have a chance to add to his tally.

Puneet Bisht follows close on his heels with 892 runs while Priyank Panchal, Yogesh Nagar and Abhimanyu Easwaran all have 800-plus runs. Interestingly, Panchal is the only one amongst them whose team qualified for the quarter-final.

Top bowlers

Ashutosh Aman tops the wicket-takers tally with 68 scalps. He went past Bishan Singh Bedi for the most wickets in a Ranji season but will unfortunately not be able to add to his tally as Bihar failed to qualify. Gurinder Singh comes a distant second with 53 wickets. Saurabh Kumar and Aniket Choudhary will get a chance to add to their wickets tally.

⦁ Vidarbha v Uttarakhand
⦁ Saurashtra v Uttar Pradesh
⦁ Karnataka v Rajasthan
⦁ Kerala v Gujarat

The quarter-finals start on 15th January and the winners will face off in the semi-finals from 24th January. The final will begin on 3rd February.