The Hyderabad cricket team stormed back into the Elite Group for the next Ranji Trophy season with a 5-wicket win against Meghalaya in the Plate Group final on Tuesday. Chasing 198, the Tilak Varma-led side wrapped the game on the fourth day with the skipper and veteran batter Gahlaut Rahul Singh scoring half-centuries in the second innings.
Following the sensational win, the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) announced a reward of Rs 10 Lakh for the Plate Group champions and Rs 50,000 for the standout performers. Interestingly, association chief Jagan Mohan Rao Arsihnapally has also promised a BMW car to every player and a cash reward of Rs 1 crore to the team if it manages to win the Ranji Trophy title in the next 3 years.
“The announcement was aimed at motivating the players and other stakeholders. Achieving the target next year is realistically not possible so I gave them three seasons,” Rao was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.
Hyderabad, the title winners in the 1937-38 and 1986-87 editions of the elite domestic tournament, suffered the hardest fate in the last edition. They were relegated to the plate division after finishing at the bottom of the Elite Group B points table with a solitary win in seven league-stage games. The relegation was indeed a shock to the stature of Hyderabad cricket but their return was also on the expected lines as the other five teams in the Plate Group, namely Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, are gradually rising through the ranks.
Quarterfinals to start February 23 onwards
Vidarbha registered a comfortable 115-run win over Haryana to qualify for the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals from group A. They grabbed six points from what was their fifth win in the tournament to finish on top of Group A and were followed by Saurashtra.
41-time champions Mumbai finished as the Group B table toppers with 37 points in 7 matches followed by Andhra, with 26 points. Tamil Nadu defeated Punjab to top Group C and qualify with 28 points while Karnataka finished second in the group with 27 points.
In Group D, Madhya Pradesh (32 points) and Baroda (26 points) finished in the top half of the table.
Quarter-final fixture:
Vidarbha vs Karnataka, 1st Quarter-final – Nagpur
Mumbai vs Baroda, 2nd Quarter-final – Mumbai
Tamil Nadu vs Saurashtra, 3rd Quarter-final – Coimbatore
Madhya Pradesh vs Andhra, 4th Quarter-final – Indore
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