1943–44 Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy
Administrator(s)BCCI
Cricket formatFirst-class
Tournament format(s)Knockout
ChampionsWestern India (1st title)
Participants19
Matches18
Most runsVijay Merchant (Bombay) (553)[1]
Most wicketsSaeed Ahmed (Western India) (28)[2]

The 1943–44 Ranji Trophy was the tenth season of the Ranji Trophy. Western India won their only title defeating Bengal in the final.

This season could be considered as the arbitrary starting point of high scoring in Indian domestic cricket that would last till the end of the decade. In the final of the Bombay Pentangular in early December 1943, Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare scored 250* and 309. It was the prelude to Merchant setting a new Ranji and Indian first class record of 359* for Bombay against Maharashtra between 31 December 1943, and 2 January 1944, at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay.

Highlights

  • The Bombay-Maharashtra match[3] set several national records.
  • Bombay made 735, the highest score in Indian first class cricket bettering 703 by Bengal Cyclone XI in 1942-43.[4] The previous Ranji record was 675 by Maharashtra v Bombay in 1940-41[5]
  • Vijay Merchant's 359* was the highest individual score in India. Vijay Hazare's 316* for Maharashtra v Baroda in 1939-40 was the previous Ranji and first class record.[6]
  • Merchant and Rusi Modi's partnership of 371 was a national record for the sixth wicket. As of 2014, it is bettered only by 417 between Wridhiman Saha and Laxmi Ratan Shukla for Bengal v Assam in 2010-11[7]
  • Vijay Merchant's season batting average of 276.50 is the highest by any batsman scoring over 500 runs.
  • Herbert Barritt captained Western India to the title. He was the third Englishman to captain a Ranji winning team, after Bert Wensley of Nawanagar in 1936-37 and Tom Longfield of Bengal in 1938–39.

Zonal Matches

West Zone

 
Round 1Round 2Round 3
 
          
 
10 Dec 1943 – Jamnagar
 
 
Nawanagar221 & 70/5
 
28 Dec 1943 – Rajkot
 
Western India336 & 116/3d
 
Western India274 & 285
 
11 Dec 1943 – Karachi
 
Sind178 & 158/6
 
Sind175 & 83/1
 
15 Jan 1944 – Rajkot
 
Gujarat120 & 136
 
Western India363/4
 
11 Dec 1943 – Bombay
 
Bombay255
 
Bombay487
 
31 Dec 1943 – Bombay
 
Baroda297
 
Bombay735
 
 
Maharashtra298
 
 
 
 

East Zone

 
Round 1Round 2
 
      
 
18 Dec 1943 – Calcutta
 
 
Bengal249 & 88/8
 
7 Jan 1944 – Calcutta
 
Bihar159 & 261/7d
 
Bengal387 & 21/0
 
17 Dec 1943 – Indore
 
Holkar138 & 266
 
Holkar222 & 420/7d
 
 
United Provinces116 & 227
 

North Zone

 
Round 1Round 2Round 3
 
          
 
20 Dec 1943 – Gwalior
 
 
Gwalior92 & 61
 
29 Jan 1944 – New Delhi
 
Delhi179 & 393
 
Delhi84 & 103
 
 
Southern Punjab388
 
 
4 Mar 1944 – Patiala
 
 
Southern Punjab326 & 104/8
 
 
Northern India329 & 127
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

South Zone

 
Round 1Round 2
 
      
 
31 Dec 1943 – Nagpur
 
 
Central Provinces and Berar166 & 93
 
28 Jan 1944 – Secunderabad
 
Hyderabad160 & 109
 
Hyderabad183 & 141/2
 
31 Dec 1943 – Bangalore
 
Madras349 & 191
 
Mysore359
 
 
Madras365
 

Inter-Zonal Knockout matches

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
17 Mar 1944 – Rajkot
 
 
Western India254 & 175/3
 
7 Apr 1944 – Bombay
 
Northern India145 & 283
 
Western India433
 
19 Feb 1944 – Calcutta
 
Bengal234 & 176
 
Bengal235 & 266
 
 
Madras102 & 265
 

Final

7-10 Apr 1944 (timeless match)
Scorecard
v
234 (130.2 overs)
Asoke Chatterjee 68
Shantilal Gandhi 6/50
433 (153.5 overs)
G. Kishenchand 111
B.K. Mitra 4/80
176 (79.2 overs)
Nirmal Chatterjee 71
Saeed Ahmed 4/23
Western India won by an innings and 23 runs
Brabourne Stadium, Bombay
Umpires: M.G. Bhave and D.K. Naik

Summary of first ten seasons

Teams in the first ten years
Results of the first ten years

Scorecards and averages

References

  1. "Ranji Trophy, 1943/44 / Records / Most runs". Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  2. "Ranji Trophy, 1943/44 / Records / Most wickets". Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  3. Bombay v Maharashtra, Brabourne Stadium
  4. Bijapur Famine XI v Bengal Cyclone XI, 1942-43
  5. Maharashtra v Bombay 1940-41
  6. Maharashtra v Baroda, 1939-40
  7. Bengal v Assam, 2010-11
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