Ranji Trophy 2019-20, Round 1 – Winning after follow-on, Jaffer's 150 appearances, Shaw's maiden double ton, Vinay Kumar's 400 wickets and more stats

The 2019-20 season’s Ranji Trophy began with as many as 14 of the 17 opening round matches witnessing outright results. In another three matches, the team getting the first-innings lead earned three points. Krishnappa Gowtham starred for Karnataka in the team’s 26-run win against Tamil Nadu. Gowtham scored a quickfire fifty going along with his 14 wickets in the match that sealed a thrilling win. Prithvi Shaw continued to make his bat talk on his return as he scored his maiden FC double hundred during their victory against Baroda.

All the major stats and numbers from the opening round of the Ranji Trophy 2019-20:

1 – Jharkhand became the first team in the history of Ranji Trophy to win after being forced to follow-on. Tripura made 289 in their first innings while Jharkhand were bundled out for only 136 in response. Unbeaten centuries from Ishan Jaggi and Saurabh Tiwary helped them to set a 266-run target in front of Tripura. During the chase, Tripura reduced to 49/6 and eventually bowled out for 211 despite a hundred from No.8 batsman Mura Singh.

Overall, this is only the 2nd instance of a team winning after following-on in a first-class match on Indian soil. The first such match was the famous 2005 Kolkata Test between India and Australia which was won by the hosts.

4 – Kedar Devdhar became only the 4th player to carry the bat in a first-class match for Baroda; all four in the Ranji Trophy. DK Yarde against Nawanagar in 1937/38, Kedar Chavan against Gujarat in 1986/87 and Connor Williams in the 1999/00 season against Saurashtra are the other two instances.

13 – Meghalaya’s Sanjay Yadav took 13/112 in the team’s 110-run win over Nagaland. Interestingly, Nagaland’s Imliwati Lemtur (13/107) also took 13 wickets in the same match. Thus, this became the first-ever Ranji Trophy match where two different players took 13+ wickets in the same game.

In the 1954/55 season, Assam’s Surjuram Girdhari (12/66) and Bihar’s Bimal Bose (12/47) took 12 wickets apiece during the match played in Jorhat. It is the only other instance of two bowlers picking up 12+ wickets in the same Ranji Trophy match.

14/170 – Krishnappa Gowtham became only the 4th player to take 14 or more wickets in a first-class match for Karnataka. He is also the first to do so for the Karnataka team since Anil Kumble (16/99) against Kerala in the 1994/95 season.

150 – The match against Andhra was 150th game in Ranji Trophy history for Wasim Jaffer; the first player to achieve this milestone. During the 2018/19 season, Jaffer became the most capped player in Ranji trophy.

174 – Prithvi Shaw’s 174-ball double century against Baroda is the 3rd fastest known double ton in Ranji Trophy. Ravi Shastri got his 200 in only 123 balls against Baroda in the 1984/85 season. Assam’s Rajesh Borah raised his double ton in only 156 balls during 1991/92 season.

233* – Arslan Khan of Chandigarh scored an unbeaten 233 against Arunachal Pradesh on debut. This is the 5th highest individual score and 3rd highest by an Indian on first-class debut. Ajay Rohilla and Amol Muzumdar occupy the top two places in the list with scores of 267* and 260 respectively.

237 – Ganesh Satish’s 237-run knock against Andhra is the highest individual score in Ranji Trophy for Vidarbha surpassing SG Gujar’s 221 against Madhya Pradesh in the 1991/92 season. Satish’s 237 is the 2nd highest for Vidarbha in first-class cricket behind Wasim Jaffer’s 286 in 2017/18 Irani Cup match against Rest of India.

401 – Vinay Kumar became the 11th player to complete 400 wickets in Ranji Trophy. He started the season with 397 wickets; all for Karnataka and completed the milestone with a 4-wicket haul in the 2nd innings during his debut game for Puducherry against Bihar. Vinay is the 2nd fast bowler to achieve this feat after Pankaj Singh (401).