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After super centuries from Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey on the first day of Ranji Trophy 2022 season, Sakibul Gani's triple ton, and double cents from Pawan Shah, Sarfaraz Khan, Babul Kumar put the respective opponent teams on backfoot to headline the second day.
Not just this, Bihar's Sakibul made a world record as he became the first-ever player to score a triple century on his First-Class debut against Mizoram. Meanwhile he paired with Babul to achieve another feat of stitching third highest partnership for the fourth wicket in First-Class cricket as together they conjured 538 off 756 balls. On the other hand Sarfaraz, who was roped in for 20 lakhs in the IPL 2022 auction, scored a quick 275 for Mumbai which continued the dominance of batters in the ongoing Ranji season.
Sakibul's terrific triple
Bihar's Sakibul Gani made headlines on Friday (February 18), when he became the first-ever player to score a triple century on his First-Class debut in the ongoing match against Mizoram. The 22-year-old struck 56 boundaries in his colossal 341-run knock to spur Bihar to a humungous 686/5 dec. Meanwhile, Babul Kumar was no less as he was also all guns blazing in his unbeaten 229-run knock. Mizoram have a task cut out and are now 40/3 at the close of Day 2 at the Jadavpur University Campus 2nd Ground in Kolkata.
Sakibul surpassed the previous record of Ajay Rohera who smashed 267 on his debut match for Madhya Pradesh back in 2018.
The Motihari-born Sakibul paired with Babul to achieve another feat of stitching third highest partnership for the fourth wicket in First-Class cricket. Together they conjured 538 off 756 balls to register their names in the list which is led by VS Hazare & Gul Mahomed (577 runs) and CL Walcott & FMM Worrell (574* runs). Sakibul also scored a century in the last edition's Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Babul double blitz
Bihar steadied their boat from 71/3 as the fourth wicket fell in the form of Sakibul at the score of 609 runs. After this, Babul took his innings forward and he played a brilliant unbeaten innings of 229 off 398 balls which was loaded with 27 fours and a six. Bihar declared their first innings on 686 for the loss of 5 wickets. In reply, Mizoram lost three wickets for 40 runs by the end of second day's play. Taruvar Kohli is at the crease after scoring 11 runs.
Sarfaraz's sensational double ton
Mumbai declared their first innings at 544 for the loss of seven wickets in their Ranji Trophy Group D match against Saurashtra on Friday with the help of middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan's innings of 275 runs. Saurashtra scored 18/1 in their first innings till the end of the second day's play. Harvik Desai is playing on six and Snell Patel is on 11. On the third day all eyes will be on Cheteshwar Pujara who is struggling to score big. His Indian teammate Ajinkya Rahane has staked his claim for the Test series against Sri Lanka by scoring 129 runs. However, the highlight of Mumbai's innings was Sarfaraz's double century, in which he played 401 balls and hit 30 fours and seven sixes. He alongwith Rahane shared a 252-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Tanush Kotian scored an unbeaten 50 in the lower order.
Pavan's powerful 219
Debutant Pavan Shah slammed his maiden double hundred to take Mahrashtra to an imposing 415 and put them in a commanding position against Assam on the second day of their Elite Group G Ranji Trophy game here on Friday.
The 22-year-old Shah, a right-handed batter, who hails from Chinchwad near Pune, took the pedestrian Assam attack to cleaners as he hammered 20 boundaries and two maximums enroute his 219 off 401 balls.
Shah started from his overnight score on unbeaten 165, and remained the cynosure of eyes at the Choudhry Bansilal stadium here, as he kept playing his shots at will.
The right-handed batter, a product of the Verroc Vengsarkar academy, stitched a 112-run stand with number seven Diyang Hinganekar (46; 7x4), who played his role to perfection.
But in-form Assam pacer Mukhtar Hussain (5/88) trapped Hinganekar in front of the wicket as Maharashtra lost its sixth wicket for 296.
But there was more agony in store for Assam as Shah found an able ally in Satyajeet Bachhav, who hit a patient 52 in 108 balls, striking six boundaries and a maximum.
The Shah-Bachhav duo added vital 74-runs for the seventh wicket. It was Bachhav's knock that eventually helped the western team cross the 400-mark and ensure that it would be an uphill task for Assam batters. After Bachhav fell, Assam bowlers quickly rattled the tail.
In reply, Assam lost opener Rishav Das (14) cheaply, who became Mukesh Choudhary's first victim. Even one-down batter Gokul Sharma (5) perished early as they were reeling at 32/2.
But opener Subham Mandal (34 not out) and the talented all-rounder Riyan Parag (26 not out ) then steadied the ship with their 49-run unbroken stand for the third wicket and held fort till stumps were drawn. At stumps, Assam was poised at 81/2, still adrift by 334 runs.
Yuvraj's fantastic fifer
Arindam Ghosh scored an unbeaten 78 to give Railways a comeback in the Group C match against Karnataka on Friday after Krishnappa Gautam's blows. Karnataka scored 481 runs in their first innings with the help of centurion knock from K Siddhartha (146), captain Manish Pandey's 156 and Gautam's 52. For Railways, fast bowler Yuvraj Singh took five wickets for 93 runs.
In reply, M Deodhar (56) and Kedar Singh (59) got the Railways off to a good start by adding 110 runs for the first wicket but Gautam (3/71) put a break on their innings. Subsequently, riding on Ghosh's flamboyant innings, the Railways scored 213/3 by the end of the second day's play and they are now 268 runs behind Karnataka.
Lalit follows Dhull's footsteps
Delhi rode on Lalit Yadav's maiden century of his First-Class career, strengthened their hold in the Group H match by giving Tamil Nadu the early blow. After the batting phenom Yash Dhul Day 1's 113, Lalit took over the mantle and played a wonderful innings of 177 runs. With this, Delhi scored 452 in their first innings as Tamil Nadu are now 75/2 at the close of Day 2 and are 377 runs behind Delhi. Lalit extended his innings by 45 runs in the morning as Delhi were once wobbling at 291/7. Lalit faced 287 balls and hit 17 fours and 10 sixes. The tailender batter Vikas Mishra (7 off 58) and Kuldeep Yadav (9 not out off 37) supported him well. Lalit played half-century partnerships with these two.
Other matches
In a Group C match, Jammu and Kashmir scored 260/3 with half-centuries from top-order batters Kamran Iqbal (96 not out), Jatin Wadhawan (69) and Shubham Pundir (51) to take a first innings lead.Earlier, Puducherry had scored 343 by resuming their innings from 309/6. In this way, Jammu and Kashmir is now only 83 runs behind them. In another Group D match, Odisha took a modest first innings lead of eight runs over Goa. Odisha scored 189 runs in reply to Goa's 181 with Rupesh Dhupar (71 not out). Goa took a lead of 79 runs after scoring 87/2 in their second innings at the end of the second day's play. At the same time, in response to Uttar Pradesh's 301 runs in the first innings of a Group G match, Vidarbha scored 256/2. Faiz Fazal is playing on 142 runs, who faced 236 balls and hit 20 fours and two sixes in his innings. In another Group H match, Chhattisgarh need 67 runs to win over Jharkhand with eight wickets left. The Jharkhand team, who scored 169 in the first innings, could only manage 133 runs in the second innings, giving Chhattisgarh a target of 129 runs.
