The twelfth edition of the Ranji Trophy that is the Ranji Trophy, 1945-46 saw the most number of teams participating in it till then, as 20 teams took part in that competition. The teams included the likes of Bengal, Baroda, Bihar, Bombay, CP & Berar, Delhi, Gujarat, Holkar, Hyderabad, Madras, Maharashtra, Mysore, Nawanagar, Northern India, North West Frontier Province, Rajputana, Sind, Southern Punjab, United Province and the Western India. The tournament was a successful one and as the World War II was finished by that time, the officials of the Ranji Trophy were quite happy for being successful to organise the tournament without any interruption. The first match of the tournament was the match between the teams of Western India and Gujarat that took place at Rajkot from 14-17 December, 1945. The Western India team got a hardly earned victory of 3 runs in the match.

The second match of the Ranji Trophy, 1945-46 also took place during the same time from 14-17 December, 1945 at Bangalore and the teams of Mysore and Madras were involved in the match. The match was won by the Mysore team with a margin of 112 runs. The Holkar and Bihar team met with each other at Indore from 15-16 December 1945 and the Holkar team got a huge win of an innings and 187 runs in the match. The next match involved the teams like Baroda and Nawanagar and the match was held at Jamnagar from 19-22nd December 1945. The drawn match saw the Baroda team winning on the basis of its lead in the first innings. The match between United Provinces and Bengal was held at Kanpur from 20-23 December 1945 where the Bengal team clinched a victory of 45 runs.

The teams of CP & Berar and Hyderabad clashed with each other at Nagpur from 21-23 December 1945 and the Hyderabad team got a huge victory of an innings and 118 runs in the match. The teams of Delhi and North West Frontier Province were involved in the next match of the Ranji Trophy, 1945-46. The match was held at Delhi from 28-30 December 1945 and the closely contested match saw the Delhi team winning by 3 wickets. The teams of Sind and Maharashtra then clashed with each other at Karachi from 29 December 1945 - 01 January, 1946. The Sind team was declared as the winner of the drawn match, as it was having a lead in the first innings. After the Sind-Maharashtra match, the next match saw a battle between the teams of Southern Punjab and Delhi and the match was held at Patiala from 10-12 January 1946.

The next match of the Ranji Trophy, 1945-46 involved the teams of Bengal and Holkar at Calcutta from 19-21 January, 1946 and the Holkar team won the match by 5 wickets. The match between Mysore and Hyderabad was held at Bangalore from 26-29 January, 1946, where the Mysore team got a big win of 101 runs in the match. The teams of Bombay and Sind met with each other in Bombay from 25-28 January, 1946 and the winner of the match was the Bombay team with a huge margin of an innings and 20 runs. The match between Rajputana and Northern India was held at Rajputana from 02-04 February, 1946 where the Northern India side won by a huge margin of 9 wickets. The Baroda team then met with the Western India team at Baroda from 02-05 February, 1946 and the drawn match saw the Baroda team winning on the basis of first innings lead.

In the next match, the teams of Southern Punjab and Northern India played against each other at Patiala from 07-10 February, 1946 and the match was drawn during its stipulated duration. The last match of the group level of the Ranji Trophy, 1945-46 involved the teams of Bombay and Baroda and it was held at Bombay from 09-12 February, 1946. The match was declared as drawn and as a result no teams were announced as the winner or the loser.

The first Semi-Final match saw the clash between the teams of Holkar and Mysore at Bombay from 02-05 March, 1946. The Holkar team dominated the Mysore team throughout the Semi-Final match and entered the Final after the winning the match with a huge margin of an innings and 213 runs. In the second Semi-Final match, the teams of Southern Punjab and Baroda locked their horns together at Patiala from 04-07 March, 1946. Though the match was tied, the match officials allowed the Baroda team to compete with the Holkar team in the Final match of the Ranji Trophy, 1945-46. The Final match was a well competitive one and both the teams of Holkar and Baroda tried hard to win the championship. However, the Holkar team eventually proved them to be a better one in the match and became the Champion of the tournament by winning the Final match by 56 runs.