1938–39 Ranji Trophy

1938–39 Ranji Trophy
	The Ranji Trophy
Dates	28 October 1938 – 21 February 1939
Administrator(s)	BCCI
Cricket format	First-class
Tournament format(s)	Knockout
Champions	Bengal (1st title)
Participants	20
Matches	20
Most runs	Naoomal Jeoomal (Sind) (418)
Most wickets	Amir Elahi (Nawanagar) (28)
Official website	http://www.bcci.tv
	← 1937–38 1939–40 →

The 1938–39 Ranji Trophy was the fifth edition of the Ranji Trophy, an annual first-class cricket tournament in India. Matches were played from 28 October 1938 to 21 February 1939 with a total of twenty teams participating. The Army and Delhi both returned and were included in the North Zone. The sides were divided into four zonal groups, but the tournament utilised a knockout format. Bengal won their first title defeating Southern Punjab in the final.

Teams

Although the tournament ran in a knockout format, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organised the teams by zone. Delhi and the Army rejoined North Zone although the latter did not actually play a match. United Provinces (North to East) and Rajputana (East to North) exchanged zones. The twenty teams are listed alphabetically by zone and the sides that won each zonal title are in bold.

South Zone
Hyderabad
Madras (now Tamil Nadu)
Mysore (now Karnataka)

Highlights

Tom Longfield was the second non-native captain to win the Ranji Trophy, after Bert Wensley in 1936–37.
Naoomal Jeoomal of Sind scored 203* against Nawanagar out of a score of only 326.
In the Nawanagar v Western India match, Amar Singh became the first bowler to take 100 Ranji Trophy wickets.^[1] This was his 14th Ranji Trophy match.

Zonal matches

East Zone

Round 1		Round 2

3 Dec 1938 – Calcutta

Bengal	366/3d
		31 Dec 1938 – Calcutta
Bihar	105 & 76
		Bengal	378/9d
10 Dec 1938– Indore
		Central India	108 & 149
Central India	170 & 279

United Provinces	49 & 154

North Zone

Round 1		Round 2		Round 3

12 Nov 1938 – Patiala

Southern Punjab	304 & 221
		2 Jan 1939— Patiala
Rajputana	190 & 151
		Southern Punjab	379
26 Nov 1938 – Peshawar
		North West Frontier Province	227 & 115
North West Frontier Province	418/8d
				21 Jan 1939— Patiala
Delhi	207 & 40
				Southern Punjab	180 & 120/1

				Northern India	116 & 123



		Northern India	Walkover

		Army

South Zone

Round 1		Round 2




		17 Dec 1938 – Madras

		Madras	159 & 150/4
25 Nov 1938 – Secunderabad
		Hyderabad	139 & 168
Hyderabad	382 & 236/7

Mysore	285 & 111/2

West Zone

Round 1		Round 2		Round 3




		5 Nov 1938 – Karachi

		Sind	370/7
28 Oct 1938 – Baroda
		Bombay	366
Baroda	326
				24 Dec 1938 – Karachi
Bombay	441
				Sind	326 & 263/7d
4 Nov 1938 – Jamnagar
				Nawanagar	271 & 125/2
Nawanagar	238 & 16/2
		9 Nov 1938 – Jamnagar
Gujarat	105 & 148
		Nawanagar	168 & 184/6
4 Nov 1938 – Rajkot
		Western India	166 & 185
Western India	138 & 180

Maharashtra	131 & 77

Inter-zonal knockout stage

Semi-finals		Final

21 Jan 1939 – Calcutta

Bengal	515
		18 Feb 1939 – Calcutta
Madras	114 & 116
		Bengal	222 & 418
10 Feb 1939 – Patiala
		Southern Punjab	328 & 134
Southern Punjab	197 & 168/3

Sind	339 & 23

Final

18–21 February 1939
Scorecard

Bengal (H)	v	Southern Punjab
222 (83.5 overs) Kartick Bose 48 Amir Elahi 5/73		328 (90 overs) Wazir Ali 222 Kamal Bhattacharya 5/100
418 (146.3 overs) Basil Malcolm 91 Murawwat Hussain 4/97		134 (48.4 overs) Lala Amarnath 37 Tom Longfield 4/48

Bengal won by 178 runs
Eden Gardens, Calcutta
Umpires: Nirmal Chatterjee, M. Dutta Ray

Bengal won the toss and elected to bat.

References

^ Nawanagar v Western India, 1938–39. CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2023. (subscription required)

[1] Nawanagar v Western India, 1938–39. CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2023. (subscription required)

[1]

v t e Ranji Trophy
Seasons	1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Current teams	Andhra Arunachal Pradesh Assam Baroda Bengal Bihar Chandigarh Chhattisgarh Delhi Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Hyderabad Jammu and Kashmir Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Mumbai Nagaland Odisha Pondicherry Punjab Railways Rajasthan Saurashtra Services Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand Vidarbha
Former teams	Army Central Provinces and Berar Eastern Punjab Nawanagar Northern India Northern Punjab North West Frontier Province Patiala Sind Southern Punjab Travancore-Cochin Western India
Records	List of Ranji Trophy records Triple centuries Hat-tricks