# 2022–23 Ranji Trophy

The 2022–23 Ranji Trophy was the 88th season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India. It was played from 13 December 2022 and was finished on 19 February 2023. Madhya Pradesh were the defending champions, winning their first Ranji Trophy title previous season.
During this season, Sikkim hosted Ranji Trophy matches for the first time. Narayanan Janani, Vrinda Rathi and Gayathri Venugopalan became the first female umpires to officiate in the Ranji Trophy.
In the final, Saurashtra defeated Bengal by 9 wickets to win their second title.

## Format

Unlike the last season, where all teams competed for the same trophy, this season BCCI enforced the Promotion and relegation format. This Ranji trophy had two winners to improve the standard and competitiveness of the tournament. The teams were divided into two categories named as Elite category having 32 teams split into four groups, with Plate category having 6 teams. The Elite group teams played each other once, with the top two teams from each group qualified for the quarter-finals. In the Plate Group also teams played each other once, but the top four teams qualified for the plate group knockouts, with the bottom two teams playing for the fifth and sixth positions, and another playoff for the third and fourth positions took place. The two Plate finalists will be promoted to the Elite group for the next season, 2023–24, while the bottom two teams of all the four Elite groups combined - factoring in both points and the quotient will be relegated to Plate group.
The teams were placed in the following groups:
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Plate Group |
| Baroda Bengal Haryana Himachal Pradesh Nagaland Odisha Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand | Andhra Assam Delhi Hyderabad Maharashtra Mumbai Saurashtra Tamil Nadu | Chhattisgarh Goa Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Pondicherry Rajasthan Services | Chandigarh Gujarat Jammu & Kashmir Madhya Pradesh Punjab Railways Tripura Vidarbha | Arunachal Pradesh Bihar Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Sikkim |

## Plate Knockouts

* 17–19 January 2023 5th-Place Plate Play-offs Scorecard
* Mizoram won by an innings and 27 runs Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad Umpires: Navdeep Singh and KR Vasuki Player of the match: Avinash Yadav (Mizoram)
* Arunachal Pradesh won the toss and elected to bat.
* Ajoy Sarkar (Arunachal Pradesh) and Lalrinchhana (Mizoram) both made their first-class debuts.

### Plate Semi-finals

| Plate Semi-finals | Plate Semi-finals | Plate Semi-finals | Plate Final | Plate Final | Plate Final |
| P4 | Bihar | 428 & 164 | | | |
| P1 | Meghalaya | 134 & 156 | | | |
| P1 | Meghalaya | 134 & 156 | P4 | Bihar | 546 & 335 |
| | | | P3 | Manipur | 337 & 324 |
| P2 | Sikkim | 229 & 273 | P3 | Manipur | 337 & 324 |
| P3 | Manipur | 166 & 340/8 | | | |
* 17–21 January 2023 1st Plate Semi-final Scorecard
* Bihar won by 302 runs Meghalaya Cricket Association Ground, Shillong Umpires: Premdip Chatterjee and Vineet Kulkarni Player of the match: Bipin Saurabh (Bihar)
* Meghalaya won the toss and elected to field.
* Nawaz Khan (Bihar) and Rohit Shah (Meghalaya) both made their first-class debuts.
* 17–21 January 2023 2nd Plate Semi-final Scorecard
* Manipur won by 2 wickets Lalabhai Contractor Stadium, Surat Umpires: Madanagopal Kuppuraj and Rohan Pandit Player of the match: Sumit Singh (Sikkim)
* Manipur won the toss and elected to field.

### Plate Final

* 25–29 January 2023 Plate Final Scorecard
* Bihar won by 220 runs Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna Umpires: Nand Kishore and Krishnamachari Srinivasan Player of the match: Sakibul Gani (Bihar)
* Bihar won the toss and elected to bat.
* Bihar and Manipur were promoted to the Elite group and will replace Nagaland and Hyderabad for the 2023–24 season

## Knockout stage

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final | Final |
| A1 | Bengal | 328 & 69/1 | | | | | | |
| C2 | Jharkhand | 173 & 221 | | | | | | |
| C2 | Jharkhand | 173 & 221 | A1 | Bengal | 438 & 279 | | | |
| | | | D1 | Madhya Pradesh | 170 & 241 | | | |
| D1 | Madhya Pradesh | 228 & 245/5 | D1 | Madhya Pradesh | 170 & 241 | | | |
| B2 | Andhra | 379 & 93 | | | | | | |
| B2 | Andhra | 379 & 93 | | | | A1 | Bengal | 174 & 241 |
| | | | | | | B1 | Saurashtra | 404 & 14/1 |
| B1 | Saurashtra | 303 & 379 | | | | | | | B1 | Saurashtra | 404 & 14/1 |
| D2 | Punjab | 431 & 180 | | | | | | |
| D2 | Punjab | 431 & 180 | B1 | Saurashtra | 527 & 117/6 | | | |
| | | | C1 | Karnataka | 407 & 234 | | | |
| C1 | Karnataka | 606 | C1 | Karnataka | 407 & 234 | | | |
| A2 | Uttarakhand | 116 & 209 | | | | | | |

### Quarter-finals

* 31 January–4 February 2023 1st Quarter-final Scorecard
* Bengal won by 9 wickets Eden Gardens, Kolkata Umpires: Vinod Seshan and Akshay Totre Player of the match: Akash Deep (Bengal)
* Bengal won the toss and elected to field.
* 31 January–4 February 2023 2nd Quarter-final Scorecard
* Saurashtra won by 71 runs Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot Umpires: Saiyed Khalid and Nikhil Patwardhan Player of the match: Parth Bhut (Saurashtra)
* Saurashtra won the toss and elected to bat.
* Pukhraj Mann (Punjab) made his first-class debut.
* 31 January–4 February 2023 3rd Quarter-final Scorecard
* Karnataka won by an innings and 281 runs M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru Umpires: Saidharshan Kumar and Nitin Pandit Player of the match: Shreyas Gopal (Karnataka)
* Karnataka won the toss and elected to field.
* M Venkatesh (Karnataka) made his first-class debut.
* 31 January–4 February 2023 4th Quarter-final Scorecard
* Madhya Pradesh won by 5 wickets Holkar Stadium, Indore Umpires: Rohan Pandit and Tapan Sharma Player of the match: Prithvi Raj (Andhra)
* Madhya Pradesh won the toss and elected to field.

### Semi-finals

* 8–12 February 2023 1st Semi-final Scorecard
* Bengal won by 306 runs Holkar Stadium, Indore Umpires: Anil Chaudhary and Virender Sharma Player of the match: Akash Deep (Bengal)
* Bengal won the toss and elected to bat.
* 8–12 February 2023 2nd Semi-final Scorecard
* Saurashtra won by 4 wickets M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru Umpires: Ulhas Gandhe and Sadashiv Iyer Player of the match: Arpit Vasavada (Saurashtra)
* Saurashtra won the toss and elected to field.

### Final

* 16–19 February 2023 Final Scorecard
* Saurashtra won by 9 wickets Eden Gardens, Kolkata Umpires: Jayaraman Madanagopal and Navdeep Singh Player of the match: Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra)
* Saurashtra won the toss and elected to field.
* Sumanta Gupta (Bengal) made his first-class debut.

## Statistics

* On 2 January, Saurashtra bowler Jaydev Unadkat became the first player to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Ranji Trophy match.
* On 12 January, Mumbai batter Prithvi Shaw made second highest score in an inning in Ranji history by a batter. He scored 379 runs.
* On 19 January, Vidarbha defended a target of 73 runs against Gujarat, which is the lowest target defended in the Ranji Trophy.