Madhya Pradesh, which entered the Ranji finals for the first time since 1954-55, will take on Karnataka at Bangalore on April 19.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) began Ranji Trophy matches in 1934. Madhya Pradesh participated for the first time in 1957-58 under the captaincy of former Test player Mushtaq Ali.

Between 1941-42 and 1954-55, this region was represented by the Holkar team which reached the finals 10 times in 14 attempts. The team emerged champions four times under the captaincy of `Col' CK Naidu.

This way, the Holkar team emerged as one of the strongest in the country. Maharaja Yashwant Rao of the erstwhile Holkar state took personal interest in the team.

During the two-year interlude after the end of the Holkar team and emergence of the Madhya Pradesh team in 1957-58, theregion was represented by the Madhya Bharat team under former cricket player Chandu Sarvate.

It was in 1986 that effective measures to build a strong Madhya Pradesh team for the Ranji Trophy began when former union minister Madhav Rao Scindia was elected president of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association and MK Bhargav its secretary.

In 1988-89, as per BCCI policy, Scindia took the important initiative of including two professionals Sandeep Patil and T Shekhar in the team.

Under Patil's captaincy, Madhya Pradesh entered the pre-quarterfinal of the Trophy in 1988-89 and 1989-90. In the next two sessions also, the team qualified for the pre-quarter final and quarter-final.

Patil's incessant endeavours succeeded in 1992-93 when the team secured a semi-final berth for the first time. Though it lost the match to Punjab, it began to be considered one of the country's powerful teams. Afterwards, Patil retired from first class cricket.

With ups and down in the following years, Madhya Pradesh again reachedthe semi-final in 1996-97 under Chandrakant Pandit. This time Bombay (now Mumbai) defeated it. In the last Ranji session, the team could not manage to qualify even for the knock-out stage.

Besides Amay Khurasia, who has been included in the World Cup squad, opener JP Yadav, all-rounder Devendra Bundela, middle order batsman Raja Ali, Abbas Ali, spinner Narendra Hirwani, Sunil Lahote, Rajesh Chauhan, Manish Majithia and medium fast bowler Harvinder Sodhi have been the main contributors for Madhya Pradesh reaching the finals.