Historic Ranji game breaks 63-year record; ends in just 90 overs after twin hat-tricks, Riyan Parag’s career-best show
The Ranji Trophy match lasted just 90 overs as Services beat Assam by eight wickets to register their second consecutive win in the 2025/26 season.
The Ranji Trophy match between Assam and Services at the Tinsukia District Sports Association Ground, Kachujan in Tinsukia made its way into the record books for being the shortest ever game in the history of India's premier red-ball tournament. The match lasted just 90 overs as Services beat Assam by eight wickets to register their second consecutive win in the 2025/26 season. They earlier beat Tripura in Delhi by an innings and 20 runs last week.
Batting first, Assam were skittled out for just 103 runs in 17.2 overs in the first innings after Arjun Sharma (5-46) and Mohit Jangra (3-5) picked up a hat-trick each - the first-ever instance where two bowlers achieved the feat in the same innings in a first-class game. However, the home team bounced back, riding on Riyan Parag's heroics as Services managed to only take a five-run lead after Assam folded them for 108 runs in 29.2 overs. The Rajasthan Royals star picked up his second career five-wicket haul en route to his career-best bowling figure of 5 for 25, and was perfectly supported by Rahul Singh, who snared a four-fer.
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The match remained a low-scoring affair as Assam were bundled for just 75 runs in 29.3 overs in the second innings, which comprised four dismissals for ducks. Only three batters had registered a double-digit score.
Set a target of just 71 runs, Services chased it down in only 13.5 overs for the loss of two wickets, both picked up by Parag.
The contest lasted only 90 overs, equivalent to 540 balls, during which 25 wickets fell on Day 1, while the remaining seven fell on the second morning. It hence turned out to be the shortest ever match in Ranji Trophy history in terms of balls bowled. The previous record was 547 balls, set in the 1962 match between Delhi and Railways. That game too had lasted only two days, where Delhi won by an innings and 53 runs.
The shortest ever first-class match in history remains the clash between Faisalabad and Karachi Blues in the 2004-05 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which ended in only 85 balls after the latter forfeited their first innings. The shortest-ever completed first-class match, however, lasted 352 balls, between Tasmania and Victoria in 1851.
