It was the seventeenth final Competition of the Gillette Cup , which had been the first English domestic knock-out competition Competition between first-class sides .

The top three teams from Groups A and B advanced Cause_to_make_progress to the quarterfinals Competition along with the top two teams from Group C. For this season the schedule splits Change into two stages , the first is a league stage and the second being a knock-out stage .

The league stage starts Process_start on 1 October 2015 and ends Process_end on 4 December 2015 and the knock-out stage starts Process_start on 3 February 2016 and ends Process_end on 28 February 2016 .

In both divisions , the top two teams from each group advance Cause_to_make_progress to the knock-out phase .

According to the new Ranji format which is being implemented Action from 2008–09 season , the top two Plate teams join Becoming_a_member three teams each from the two groups in the Super League to play Participation a knock-out from the quarter-final stage .

`` The Red Devils '' won the trophy without losing Earnings_and_losses a single match , despite having competed Competition in a group with Bayern Munich , Barcelona and Brøndby , plus two highly rated Italian clubs in the knock-out stages .

However , United became Becoming champions with just five wins in total , the lowest number of wins recorded Recording by a champion in the Champions League era to date , though the competition Competition now has an extra round of two matches in the knock-out stages .

The group stage operated Being_in_operation in a single round-robin format consisting Cause_to_be_included of eight groups of five teams , each team plays Competition two games Competition at home and two away and the top three finishers of each group progress Achieve to the knock-out Competition round , joining Becoming_a_member the eight third-placed teams from the UEFA Champions League group stage .

The tournament Competition was played Competition in two cities , Islamabad and Karachi with People 's Football Stadium in Karachi hosting group-stages and Jinnah Sports Stadium in Islamabad hosting Come_together knock-out rounds and the finals Process_end .

The top two from each Plate sub-group contest semi-finals ; the winners of these two matches then join Becoming_a_member the top three from each Super League sub-group in an eight-team knock-out tournament Competition .

The winner of this knock-out tournament then wins Getting the Ranji Trophy .

although the lions finished Process_end 3rd in the table , they were ineligible to play Competition in the knock-out phase .

There were also some changes in the tournament 's qualifying structure , with the two-legged home-and-away knock-out stage being replaced Change by a group phase .