1936–37 Ranji Trophy

The 1936–37 Ranji Trophy was the third edition of India's first-class cricket championship. Matches were played from 3 December 1936 to 10 February 1937 with a total of 17 teams participating. The sides were divided into four zonal groups, but the tournament utilised a knockout format. Fifteen of the 1935–36 teams returned but Northern India did not. The two newcomers were Bihar and Nawanagar, who won the title at the first attempt after defeating Bengal by 256 runs in the final.

Teams
Although the tournament had a knockout format, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organised the teams by zone. Bihar and Nawanagar made their debuts but Northern India did not participate. Bihar joined the East Zone from which the Central Provinces and Berar team was transferred to the South Zone. The seventeen teams are listed alphabetically by zone and the sides that won each zonal title are in bold.


 * East Zone
 * Bengal
 * Bihar
 * Central India (now Madhya Pradesh)
 * Rajputana (now Rajasthan)


 * North Zone
 * Delhi
 * Southern Punjab (now Punjab)
 * United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh)


 * South Zone
 * Central Provinces and Berar (now Vidarbha)
 * Hyderabad
 * Madras (now Tamil Nadu)
 * Mysore (now Karnataka)


 * West Zone
 * Bombay (now Mumbai)
 * Gujarat
 * Maharashtra
 * Nawanagar
 * Sind
 * Western India

Highlights

 * Amar Singh of Nawanagar scored 103 (in 75 minutes) & 55, and took 10/83 (6/48 & 4/35) against Sind. Against Bombay, he took 8/62 in an innings. In four matches, he scored 335 (second highest aggregate) and took 28 wickets.
 * Mubarak Ali took a hat-trick split across two innings for Nawanagar vs Western India. Against Bengal, Ali scored 90 in 96 minutes batting at No.11
 * Shute Banerjee who had played two matches for Bengal was prevented from appearing in the final as he joined the service of the state of Nawanagar.

West Zone
Batting first after winning the toss, Nawanagar reached 100 after 124 minutes, in the post-lunch session. Amar Singh reached his half-century in 30 minutes, while adding 106 runs for the sixth wicket. He reached his century in 75 minutes before being caught behind after making 103, an innings that included 2 sixes, 1 five and 10 fours. His team went to stumps at 293/8. Singh shone also with the ball, more so in the third and final day. Adding to the overnight score of 68/6 in his team's second innings, he made 55 in a span of 52 minutes. Sind were set a total of 358 runs to be made in three-and-a-half hours. They lost their first wicket at 10 runs before Ghulam Mohammad was dismissed for 30 post lunch. In a batting collapse that followed, Sind were all out for 106, leaving Nawanagar victorious by 252 runs.

Western India lost five wickets inside an hour after opting to bat first upon winning the toss. They reached 100 in the second session before being dismissed for 186; Hari Mali top-scored for them, remaining unbeaten on 56. EG Hans picked up three wickets for Gujarat giving away 20 runs. Gujarat went to stumps at 36/2. They lost their remaining eight wickets on day two while adding 41 runs to their overnight total. Khwaja Saeed returned with figures of 6/23 for Western India, whose top-order in reply, began slowly taking over an hour to score 50 runs. Subsequently, Faiz Ahmed and Mali accelerated before the latter reached his half-century in 85 minutes while the former scored 4 fours off JJ Yelwande's bowling. They remained unbeaten at close of the day's play taking the team's score to 196/4. Hans picked up four wickets for 12 runs the following morning including that of Ahmed. His team declared after Hari Mali fell setting Gujarat a target of 372 runs. In reply, Gujarat began poorly losing two wickets before lunch. Mali, with his slow left-arm, picked up three wickets, while Narsingrao Kesari finished with four wickets for 27 runs, dismissing Gujarat for 105.