After being snubbed from India's squad for the ODI series against New Zealand, Ruturaj Gaikwad went on to play one of the finest knocks of his List A career against Goa in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The Maharashtra skipper came out to bat with his team on 2/3, but rescued them by playing a phenomenal knock of 134*. This was the 28-year-old's 15th century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and it saw him equal his senior teammate Ankit Bawne for the most hundreds in the domestic tournament.
Thanks to him, Maharashtra went on to form a respectable total of 249/7 and defended it as well. They restricted Goa to 244/9 after 50 overs and won the match by just five runs. However, the victory wasn't enough for them to qualify for the quarter-finals as they finished on the third place in Elite Group C with 16 points. They fell behind both Punjab and Mumbai on the points table.
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On the other hand, the century saw Gaikwad break an all-time List A record. He has now become the player with the best batting average in the format (minimum 50 innings). He has surpassed greats like Michael Bevan and even Virat Kohli on the elite list.
Best batting average in List A cricket (minimum 50 innings) -
1. Ruturaj Gaikwad - 58.83
2. Michael Bevan - 57.86
3. Sam Hain - 57.76
4. Virat Kohli - 57.67
5. Cheteshwar Pujara - 57.01
Gaikwad shatters another record
The innings also saw Gaikwad become the first player in List A cricket to score 20 centuries in less than 100 innings. He reached the milestone after just 95 innings, brteaking the previous record of 127 innings that was jointly-held by Mayank Agarwal and Khurram Manzoor.
Gaikwad's performance in VHT
Gaikwad finished his Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign with a total of 413 runs under his name from seven matches. He registered two centuries and a half-century in the tournament and was arguably Maharashtra's finest batter. It remains to be seen if he will be called back to India's ODI set-up on the back of these performances.