# 2015–16 Ranji Trophy

The 2015–16 Ranji Trophy was the 82nd season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India. It was contested by 27 teams divided into three groups of nine teams each. The top three teams from Groups A and B advanced to the quarterfinals along with the top two teams from Group C. For this season the schedule splits into two stages, the first is a league stage and the second being a knock-out stage. The league stage starts on 1 October 2015 and ends on 4 December 2015 and the knock-out stage starts on 3 February 2016 and ends on 28 February 2016. The 2015–16 Ranji Trophy will be followed by the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Deodhar Trophy.
The final was contested by Saurashtra and Mumbai, a repeat of the 2012–13 final. Mumbai won the match by an innings and 21 runs to claim their 41st title.

## Personnel changes
### Players

| Player | From | To | Role |
| Sarfaraz Khan | Mumbai | Uttar Pradesh | Batsman |
| Tashuk Ali | Himachal Pradesh | Mumbai | All rounder |
| Pragyan Ojha | Hyderabad | Bengal | Spinner |
| Wasim Jaffer | Mumbai | Vidarbha | Opening Batsman |
| Sainty Pathak | Delhi | Haryana | Opening Batsman |
| Mithun Manhas | Delhi | J&K | Batsman |
| RP Singh | Uttar Pradesh | Gujarat | Seam Bowler |
| Prasanth Parameswaran | Tamil Nadu | Goa | Seam Bowler |
| Amit Verma | Kerala | Assam | Batsman |

### Coaches

| Coach | To | Role |
| Chandrakant Pandit | Mumbai | Coach |
| Hrishikesh Kanitkar | Goa | Coach |
| Dheeraj Jadhav | Goa | Asst. Coach |
| Sairaj Bahutule | Bengal | Coach |
| Lakshmipathy Balaji | Tamil Nadu | Bowling Coach |
| Rizwan Shamshad | Uttar Pradesh | Head Coach |
| Ajay Jadeja | Delhi | Head Coach |

## Teams

The groups drawn are as follows

## Group A

Points table
| Team | Pld | W | L | D | A | WI | FI | Pts | NRR |
| Vidarbha | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 29 | 0.047 |
| Bengal | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 28 | 0.110 |
| Assam | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 26 | –0.304 |
| Delhi | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 0.215 |
| Karnataka | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 24 | 0.336 |
| Rajasthan | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17 | –0.313 |
| Maharashtra | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 0.301 |
| Odisha | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0.016 |
| Haryana | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | –0.406 |
* Top three teams advanced to knockout stage.
* Bottom placed team relegated to Group C for 2016–17 Ranji Trophy.

## Group B

Points table
| Team | Pld | W | L | D | A | WI | FI | Pts | NRR |
| Mumbai | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 35 | 0.851 |
| Punjab | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 26 | 0.045 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 24 | –0.059 |
| Gujarat | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 24 | –0.092 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 21 | –0.117 |
| Tamil Nadu | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 18 | –0.321 |
| Baroda | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 17 | –0.045 |
| Railways | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.039 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | –0.459 |
* Top three teams advanced to knockout stage.
* Bottom placed team relegated to Group C for 2016–17 Ranji Trophy.

## Group C

Points table
| Team | Pld | W | L | D | A | WI | FI | Pts | NRR |
| Saurashtra | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 36 | –0.061 |
| Jharkhand | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 0.093 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 1.201 |
| Services | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 0.473 |
| Kerala | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 0.589 |
| Goa | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 18 | –0.206 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0.870 |
| Hyderabad | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | –0.330 |
| Tripura | 8 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | –0.760 |
* Top two teams advanced to knockout stage and promoted to Group A and Group B respectively for 2016–17 Ranji Trophy.

## Knockout stage

| Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final | Final |
| A1 | Vidarbha | 151 & 139 | | | | | | |
| C1 | Saurashtra | 375 | | | | | | |
| C1 | Saurashtra | 375 | C1 | Saurashtra | 353 & 24/0 | | | |
| | | | A3 | Assam | 234 & 139 | | | |
| A3 | Assam | 323 & 101 | A3 | Assam | 234 & 139 | | | |
| B2 | Punjab | 137 & 236 | | | | | | |
| B2 | Punjab | 137 & 236 | | | | C1 | Saurashtra | 235 & 115 |
| | | | | | | B1 | Mumbai | 371 |
| A2 | Bengal | 121 & 432 | | | | | | | B1 | Mumbai | 371 |
| B3 | Madhya Pradesh | 348 & 560/9d | | | | | | |
| B3 | Madhya Pradesh | 348 & 560/9d | B3 | Madhya Pradesh | 227 & 361/5 | | | |
| | | | B1 | Mumbai | 371 & 426 | | | |
| C2 | Jharkhand | 172 & 94 | B1 | Mumbai | 371 & 426 | | | |
| B1 | Mumbai | 416 & 245 | | | | | | |

### Quarter-finals
#### 1st Quarter-final

* 3–7 February Scorecard
* Saurashtra won by an innings and 85 runs ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam Umpires: Saiyed Khalid and Chirra Ravikanthreddy Player of the match: Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra)
* Saurashtra won the toss and elected to field.

#### 2nd Quarter-final

* 3–7 February Scorecard
* Assam won by 51 runs Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, Valsad Umpires: Nitin Menon and Nitin Pandit Player of the match: Arup Das (Assam)
* Punjab won the toss and elected to field.

#### 3rd Quarter-final

{{Test match| date = 3–7 February | team1 = Madhya Pradesh | team2 = Bengal | score-team1-inns1 = 348 (114.5 overs) | runs-team1-inns1 = Aditya Shrivastava 65 (142) | wickets-team1-inns1 = Veer Pratap Singh 5/76 (23 overs)
| score-team2-inns1 = 121 (45.2 overs) | runs-team2-inns1 = [[Swagato(Raka)] 48 (100) | wickets-team2-inns1 = Ishwar Pandey 4/45 (16 overs)
| score-team1-inns2 = 560/9d (160.3 overs) | runs-team1-inns2 = Harpreet Singh 139 (206) | wickets-team1-inns2 = Ashok Dinda 2/92 (32.3 overs)
| score-team2-inns2 = 432 (91.4 overs) | runs-team2-inns2 = Manoj Tiwary 124 (160) | wickets-team2-inns2 = Ishwar Pandey(Bunty) 4/93 (22.4 overs)
| venue = Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai | toss = Bengal won the toss and elected to field. | umpires = Anil Dandekar and Rajesh Deshpande | motm = Ishwar Pandey (Madhya Pradesh) | report = Scorecard | result = Madhya Pradesh won by 355 runs | notes = Chandrakant Sakure (Madhya Pradesh) made his first-class debut. }}

#### 4th Quarter-final

* 3–7 February Scorecard
* Mumbai won by 395 runs Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wadeyar Ground, Mysore Umpires: Abhijit Deshmukh and Navdeep Singh Player of the match: Akhil Herwadkar (Mumbai)
* Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat.
* Sufiyan Shaikh (Mumbai) made his first-class debut.

### Semi-finals
#### 1st Semi-final

* 13–17 February Scorecard
* Saurashtra won by 10 wickets Moti Bagh Stadium, Vadodara Umpires: Nand Kishore and Krishnamachari Srinivasan Player of the match: Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra)
* Saurashtra won the toss and elected to field.

#### 2nd Semi-final

* 13–17 February Scorecard
* Match drawn (Mumbai won on 1st innings) DRIEMS Ground, Cuttack Umpires: K. N. Ananthapadmanabhan and Virender Sharma
* Madhya Pradesh won the toss and elected to field.
* Jagdeep Baweja (Madhya Pradesh) made his first-class debut.
* Mumbai progressed to the final due to the first innings lead.
* Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai) became the fifth player to score 1,200 runs in a single Ranji Trophy competition.

### Final

* 24–28 February Scorecard
* Mumbai won by an innings and 21 runs MCA Stadium, Pune Umpires: C. K. Nandan and Chettithody Shamshuddin Player of the match: Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai)
* Mumbai won the toss and elected to field.
* Prerak Mankad (Saurashtra) made his first-class debut.

## Statistics
### Batting records
#### Most runs

| Player Name | Style | Team | Run |
| Shreyas Iyer | Right-handed Middle-order | Mumbai | 1321 |
| Akhil Herwadkar | Left-handed Opening | Mumbai | 879 |
| Arun Karthik | Right-handed Middle-order | Assam | 802 |

#### High scores

| Player Name | Style | Team | Run | Ground |
| Natraj Behera | Right-handed Opening | Odisha | 255* | CH Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium, Rohtak |
| Swapnil Asnodkar | Right-handed Opening | Goa | 232 | Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground, Jammu |
| Paras Dogra | Right-handed Middle-order | Himachal Pradesh | 227 | Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala |
| Tashuk Ali | Right-handed Middle-order | Mumbai | 220* | Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharmshala |

#### Most hundreds

| Player Name | Style | Team | 100s |
| Rajat Paliwal | Right-handed Middle-order | Services | 4 |
| Sudip Chatterjee | Left-handed Middle-order | Bengal | 4 |
| Shreyas Iyer | Right-handed Middle-order | Mumbai | 4 |

#### Most fifties (and over)

| Player Name | Style | Team | 50+ |
| Shreyas Iyer | Right-handed Middle-order | Mumbai | 11 |
| Harpreet Singh Bhatia | Left-handed Middle-order | Madhya Pradesh | 8 |
| Tashuk ali | Right-handed Middle-order | Mumbai | 8 |

#### Most sixes in an innings

| Player Name | Style | Team | 50+ | Ground |
| Ishan Kishan | Left-handed Opening | Jharkhand | 8 | Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground, Rajkot |
| Paras Dogra | Right-handed Middle-order | Himachal Pradesh | 8 | Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala |