in this edition of the tournament. He did so in the match against Mizoram, in his ninth innings of the competition. In round seven of the tournament, Ashutosh Aman of Bihar became the first bowler to take 50 wickets in this years' Ranji Trophy tournament. He went on to finish the tournament with 68 wickets, breaking the previous record of 64 dismissals set by Bishan Singh Bedi in the 1974–75 tournament. Round eight saw Pankaj Singh of Pondicherry become the first seam bowler to take 400 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. In round nine, Tripura and Madhya Pradesh were both dismissed for just 35 runs in one of their innings. The group stage of the tournament saw two captains retire from all forms of cricket. In November 2018, Gautam Gambhir initially stepped down as captain of Delhi, before announcing his retirement the following month. Gambhir went on to score 112 in his final innings, his 43rd century in first-class cricket. Saurashtra's captain, Jaydev Shah, also retired from cricket in December. He made record for most matches as captain in Ranji Trophy. The ninth round match between Vidarbha and Saurashtra was Wasim Jaffer's 146th match in the Ranji Trophy. He broke Devendra Bundela's record of playing in the most Ranji matches. On 2 January 2019, Rajasthan from Group C became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals, after they beat Goa by ten wickets. Ahead of the penultimate round of fixtures, ten teams across Groups A and B still had a chance to progress to the quarter-finals. Vidarbha became the first team to qualify from Group A, after Baroda beat Karnataka by two wickets in their final group-stage match. Despite the loss, Karnataka also qualified from Group A. Uttarakhand won the Plate Group and advanced to the quarter-finals. On the final day of the group stage, Saurashtra and Gujarat from Group A, Kerala from Group B and Uttar Pradesh from Group C had also qualified for the quarter-finals. Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra across Groups A and B were relegated to Group C, while Goa were relegated from Group C to the Plate Group for the next season. Knockout phase Kerala were the first team to progress from the quarter-finals, after they beat Gujarat by 113 runs. It was the first time in the team's history that they had reached the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy, beating their previous best of the