Sport Today

Couldn't find this on Cricinfo so will hazard a guess.  Given Mumbai has
had a overwhelming presence in the trophy since 1962-63 and since left
arm spinner Padmakar Shivalkar has held sway as their highest Ranji
wicket taker for a long time since then, I vote for Shivalkar.  Of note,
Paddy is probably the best Indian bowler not to have played tests
because of first Nadkarni and then Bedi.  Paddy's Ranji stats are:

Name         Team          B    M     R     W   Avg.   RPO
P.Shivalkar  Bombay      21015 1271  6472  361  17.78  1.85

Of course any leading bowler who played regularly for ROI could also
have this distinction.  Look them up at:

http://www-usa.cricket.org/link_to_database/NATIONAL/IND/STATS/DOMEST...

Dipak.

   Hmm yes, it's not on CricInfo... it's not in the Indian Cricket
   annual either, strangely enough. They list the top runscorers, but not
   wickettakers.

   That's probably a good guess, but Paddy isn't the top Ranji
   wickettaker - he's not even close...

_WKTTAKERS

   As this URL shows, the top Ranji wicket-takers are:

Name                Team          B    M     R     W   Avg.   RPO
Rajinder Goel       Haryana     31950 1753 10973  640  17.14  2.06
S. Venkataraghavan  Tamil Nadu  26760 1273  9664  530  18.23  2.17
B. S. Chandrasekhar Karnataka   17418  600  8345  436  19.13  2.87
V.V. Kumar          Tamil Nadu  19873  880  7577  417  18.17  2.29
Bishen Bedi         Delhi       17496  983  6072  402  15.10  2.08
Erapalli Prasanna   Karnataka   16560  780  6414  373  17.19  2.32
Padmakar Shivalkar  Bombay      21015 1271  6472  361  17.78  1.85

   Among these, Paddy *probably* played the most Irani matches (since
   Bombay played all Iranis from the very first one to 1977-78).

     +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
     | Neeran M. Karnik | #1 fan of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar on r.s.c.  :-> |
     | Dept. of CompSci.| ------------------------------------------------ |
     | U of Minnesota   | CI/UEA++W++S+I+++++P+N-L-Z#wi+++++#powU-F+B+l++  |
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neeran, sorry if I gave that impression, I meant Shivalkar is Mumbai's
highest wicket taker with 361.  And since we're on the subject, anyone
know who Mumbai's second highest Ranji wicket taker is?  I'm guessing
(sorry not a Bombayite - but an admirer of their *** :-)) one of
Abdul Ismail or Bapu Nadkarni.  It's interesting to note Mumbai's long
*** of the game with awesome batting but without really great
bowlers.

Dipak.