Uttar Pradesh Cricket team

The Uttar Pradesh cricket team was called as the United Provinces when it was created in 1934. In its early years, the best performance in the Ranji Trophy was in 1939-40, when they were the runners-up. The name of the team was altered to Uttar Pradesh in the 1950-51 season.

The Uttar Pradesh cricket team could not display any spectacular performances in the Ranji Trophy cricket. The only exception was in 2005-06 when it won the Ranji Trophy. This victory was one of the remarkable comebacks in cricketing history as at one point of time the time was on the verge of relegation. The team was runners-up in 1977-78 and 1997-98 and on both these occasions the opponent was Karnataka cricket team. In the 2007-08 season, the team was defeated by Delhi. In this season, some of the players of the Uttar Pradesh cricket team delivered splendid performances. Mohammad Kaif, the captain of this team, became the 3rd highest run getter in the season. Sudeep Tyagi, the medium pacer, became the 2nd highest wicket taker.

The Uttar Pradesh cricket team played only once in the Irani Trophy, which was in the 2006-07 season and in this match, it was defeated by the Rest of India team. The Uttar Pradesh Cricket team won the Nissar Trophy in 2006 by defeating Sialkot in Dharmasala. In 2004-05, the Uttar Pradesh cricket team was the joint winners with Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy One day Tournament and this is their best performance in this championship.

Some of the renowned players of this team are Praveen Kumar, Gyanendra Pandey, Gopal Sharma, R.P. Singh, Piyush Chawla, Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif.

Major achievements

The Uttar Pradesh Cricket team won the Ranji Trophy in 2005-06 and has been the runners-up twice.