Cricket
Bharath Seervi, Stats sub-editor, ESPNcricinfo 6y

Vidarbha's maiden Ranji title in 61 seasons

Ranji Trophy, Cricket

61 - Number of seasons it took for Vidarbha to win their maiden Ranji Trophy title. They appeared in Ranji Trophy for the first time in 1957-58, and played 260 matches before coming into this season. Only two teams have taken longer to win their first title - Gujarat (83 seasons) and Uttar Pradesh (72). Vidarbha are the 18th team to become Ranji Trophy champions.

3 - Number of new Ranji champions in this decade. Rajasthan had got their maiden title win in 2010-11, and Gujarat got it last season. In the previous decade, two more teams had got their maiden title - Railways (2001-02) and Uttar Pradesh (2005-06).

27 - Wickets taken by Rajneesh Gurbani in the knockout stage this season (at an average of 14.11), which is 12 more than any other bowler. All other Vidarbha bowlers together picked up 32 wickets in this period at 30.96. Gurbani picked up four five-wicket hauls in these games, all the other Vidarbha players managed one. Gurbani was also the Man of the Match in each of these three knockout matches. He also took a hat-trick in the final and thus becoming only the second bowler to do so in a Ranji final; the first was B Kalyanasundaram for Tamil Nadu in the 1972-73 final against Mumbai.

9 - Wasim Jaffer has played nine Ranji Trophy finals - eight for Mumbai and one for Vidarbha - and he has been on the winning side on each of these occasions. He played his first final in the 1996-97 season. He moved to Vidarbha in 2015-16 after 18 seasons for Mumbai. Last year Mumbai played their first final without Jaffer in 20 years, and they ended up as runners-up for the first time.

4 - Number of Vidarbha batsmen who scored 500-plus runs at average of over 50 this season - the most for any side. Delhi and Karnataka had three such batsmen. For Vidarbha, Faiz Fazal (captain), Sanjay Ramaswamy, Ganesh Satish and Jaffer were those four batsmen. Fazal and Ramaswamy were also the second and third highest run-getters in the season.

3 - Vidarbha bowlers who picked up 25-plus wickets at average of less than 25 in the season - the most for any team. Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat had two such bowlers. Gurbani, Akshay Wakhare and Aditya Sarwate were those three bowlers for Vidarbha. Gurbani and Wakhare were among the top-five wicket-takers of the season.

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