# 2016–17 Ranji Trophy

The 2016–17 Ranji Trophy was the 83rd season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India. Unlike previous seasons, the 2016–17 tournament was played at neutral venues. Captains and coaches were supportive of the change. Chhattisgarh cricket team made their debut in the competition, becoming the 28th team to compete in this edition of the Ranji Trophy. Mumbai were the defending champions. Gujarat beat Mumbai in the final by 5 wickets to win their first title.
In September 2016, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the dates, groups and fixtures for the competition. The pink ball was used in the tournament, to help the BCCI make a decision on playing a day/night Test match.
In October 2016 during the Group B fixture between Maharashtra and Delhi, Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawne playing for Maharashtra, set a record partnership total in the Ranji Trophy, with 594 runs. It was also the second-highest partnership in the history of first-class cricket.
Two group stage fixtures, the Group A match between Gujarat and Bengal and the Group C match between Hyderabad and Tripura, were abandoned because of smog pollution. Initially, the BCCI rescheduled the fixtures to take place after the conclusion of the group stages. As a result of the rescheduled matches, the dates of the matches in the knockout phase of the competition were moved back to accommodate the rearranged fixtures. Both the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) opposed the rescheduling of the fixtures. The MCA joint-secretary Unmesh Khanvilkar said that it "gives unfair advantage to the participating teams with respect to their qualification the knockout phase". Kasi Viswanathan, secretary of the TNCA, said that "the matches should not be rescheduled and that points should be shared". The BCCI reviewed the decision to reschedule the matches. In December 2016, they revoked the changes and awarded each team one point from the abandoned matches.
Mumbai, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu from Group A, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Odisha from Group B and Hyderabad and Haryana from Group C all qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament. The dates of the quarter-finals were brought forward by one day and the semi-finals by two days. The Holkar Stadium in Indore hosted the final on 10 January 2017, two days earlier than originally planned.
In the semi-finals Gujarat beat Jharkhand by 123 runs to reach only their second final in the history of the Ranji Trophy, having previously played in the 1950–51 final. Mumbai beat Tamil Nadu by 6 wickets to progress to their 46th final in the Ranji Trophy.

## Personnel changes
### Players

| Player/Coach | From | To | Role |
| S Badrinath | Vidarbha | Hyderabad | Batsman |
| Iqbal Abdulla | Mumbai | Kerala | All-rounder |
| Ambati Rayudu | Baroda | Vidarbha | Batsman |
| Mohammad Kaif | Andhra | Chhattisgarh | Batsman |
| Bhavin Thakkar | Mumbai | Kerala | Bowler |
| Hanuma Vihari | Hyderabad | Andhra | All-rounder |
| Bhargav Bhatt | Gujarat | Andhra | All-rounder |
| Dwaraka Ravi Teja | Hyderabad | Andhra | All-rounder |
| Ashutosh Singh | Madhya Pradesh | Chhattisgarh | Batsman |
| Pankaj Rao | Madhya Pradesh | Chhattisgarh | Batsman |
| Sumit Ruikar | Vidarbha | Chhattisgarh | Batsman |
| Manjeet Singh | Rajasthan | Railways | Batsman |
| Nikhil Doru | Rajasthan | Railways | Batsman |
| Jalaj Saxena | Madhya Pradesh | Kerala | All-rounder |
| Mittal Ravaliya | Baroda | Chhattisgarh | Batsman |
| Prasanth Parameswaran | Goa | Kerala | Bowler |
| Anustup Majumdar | Railways | Bengal | Batsman |
| Smit Patel | Gujarat | Tripura | Wicket-keeper |
| Yashpal Singh | Services | Tripura | Batsman |

### Coaches

| Coach | From | To | Role |
| Bharat Arun | Vidarbha | Hyderabad | Coach |
| Sulakshan Kulkarni | | Chhattisgarh | Coach |
| Hrishikesh Kanitkar | Goa | Tamil Nadu | Coach |
| Sunil Joshi | Jammu & Kashmir | Assam | Coach |
| Shrikant Kalyani | | Maharashtra | Coach |
| Jacob Martin | | Baroda | Coach |
| Jai Prakash Yadav | | Railways | Coach |
| Sanath Kumar | Assam | Andhra | Coach |
| Akshay Tandale | | Maharashtra | Asst. Coach |
| KP Bhaskar | | Delhi | Coach |
| Amit Bhandari | | Delhi | Asst. Coach |

## Teams

The teams were drawn in the following groups:

## Group A

Points table
| Team | Pld | W | L | D | A | Pts | NRR |
| Mumbai | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 30 | +0.027 |
| Gujarat | 8 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 26 | +0.368 |
| Tamil Nadu | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 26 | +0.164 |
| Punjab | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 21 | +0.109 |
| Bengal | 8 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 21 | –0.235 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 20 | +0.024 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 13 | –0.124 |
| Baroda | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 10 | –0.003 |
| Railways | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 | –0.368 |
* Top three teams advanced to knockout stage.

## Group B

Points table
| Team | Pld | W | L | D | A | Pts | NRR |
| Jharkhand | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 39 | +0.399 |
| Karnataka | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 37 | +0.273 |
| Odisha | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 22 | +0.054 |
| Delhi | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 21 | +0.579 |
| Maharashtra | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 21 | –0.059 |
| Vidarbha | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 20 | –0.025 |
| Saurashtra | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 18 | +0.101 |
| Rajasthan | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 12 | –0.637 |
| Assam | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 8 | –0.620 |
* Top three teams advanced to knockout stage.

## Group C

Points table
| Team | Pld | W | L | D | A | Pts | NRR |
| Hyderabad | 9 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 31 | –0.117 |
| Haryana | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 31 | +0.218 |
| Andhra | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 28 | +0.119 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 26 | +0.664 |
| Kerala | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 25 | +0.206 |
| Goa | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 18 | –0.330 |
| Services | 9 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 16 | –0.177 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 15 | –0.383 |
| Chhattisgarh | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 14 | –0.011 |
| Tripura | 9 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 14 | –0.196 |
* Top two teams advanced to knockout stage

## Knockout stage

| Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final | Final |
| A1 | Mumbai | 294 & 217 | | | | | | |
| C1 | Hyderabad | 280 & 201 | | | | | | |
| C1 | Hyderabad | 280 & 201 | A1 | Mumbai | 411 & 251/4 | | | |
| | | | A3 | Tamil Nadu | 305 & 356/6d | | | |
| A3 | Tamil Nadu | 152 & 87/3 | A3 | Tamil Nadu | 305 & 356/6d | | | |
| B2 | Karnataka | 88 & 150 | | | | | | |
| B2 | Karnataka | 88 & 150 | | | | A1 | Mumbai | 228 & 411 |
| | | | | | | A2 | Gujarat | 328 & 313/5 |
| A2 | Gujarat | 263 & 641 | | | | | | | A2 | Gujarat | 328 & 313/5 |
| B3 | Odisha | 199 & 81/1 | | | | | | |
| B3 | Odisha | 199 & 81/1 | A2 | Gujarat | 390 & 252 | | | |
| | | | B1 | Jharkhand | 408 & 111 | | | |
| C2 | Haryana | 258 & 262 | B1 | Jharkhand | 408 & 111 | | | |
| B1 | Jharkhand | 345 & 178/5 | | | | | | |

### Quarter-finals

* 23–27 December 2016 Quarter-final 1 Scorecard
* Mumbai won by 30 runs Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur Umpires: Ulhas Gandhe and Nitin Pandit Player of the match: Abhishek Nayar (Mumbai)
* Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat.
* 23–27 December 2016 Quarter-final 2 Scorecard
* Tamil Nadu won by 7 wickets Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam Umpires: Navdeep Singh and Nikhil Patwardhan Player of the match: Aswin Crist (Tamil Nadu)
* Tamil Nadu won the toss and elected to field.
* Dinesh Karthik (Tamil Nadu) played in his 100th Ranji Trophy match.
* 23–27 December 2016 Quarter-final 3 Scorecard
* Match drawn (Gujarat won on 1st innings) Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur Umpires: Yeshwant Barde and C. K. Nandan Player of the match: Jasprit Bumrah (Gujarat)
* Odisha won the toss and elected to field.
* Samit Gohel (Gujarat) scored his first triple century in first-class cricket and the 40th triple century in the Ranji Trophy. His 359 not out is the highest score for carrying the bat in first-class cricket.
* 23–27 December 2016 Quarter-final 4 Scorecard
* Jharkhand won by 5 wickets Moti Bagh Stadium, Vadodara Umpires: Anil Dandekar and Pashchim Pathak Player of the match: Shahbaz Nadeem (Jharkhand)
* Haryana won the toss and elected to bat.

### Semi-finals

* 1–5 January 2017 1st Semi-final Scorecard
* Mumbai won by 6 wickets Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot Umpires: Abhijit Deshmukh and Virender Sharma Player of the match: Prithvi Shaw (Mumbai)
* Tamil Nadu won the toss and elected to bat.
* Prithvi Shaw (Mumbai) and Ganga Sridhar Raju (Tamil Nadu) both made their first-class debuts.
* Prithvi Shaw became the first player for Mumbai to score a century on debut in the Ranji Trophy since Amol Muzumdar did so in the 1993–94 tournament.
* 1–5 January 2017 2nd Semi-final Scorecard
* Gujarat won by 123 runs Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur Umpires: K. N. Ananthapadmanabhan and Jayaraman Madanagopal Player of the match: Jasprit Bumrah (Gujarat)
* Gujarat won the toss and elected to bat.

### Final

* 10–14 January 2017 Final Scorecard
* Gujarat won by 5 wickets Holkar Stadium, Indore Umpires: Anil Chaudhary and Nitin Menon Player of the match: Parthiv Patel (Gujarat)
* Gujarat won the toss and elected to field.
* This was the highest successful run-chase in the final of the Ranji Trophy.