Tushar Deshpande made history in Ranji Trophy© X (formerly Twitter)
Mumbai fast bowler Tushar Deshpande, who plays for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL), made history on Tuesday as he slammed a brilliant century at No. 11 during the Ranji Trophy match against Baroda. Deshpande ended up scoring 123 off 129 balls – the highest score by an Indian No. 11 batter in first-class cricket. The record previously belonged to Shute Banerjee who scored 121 while batting at No. 11 for India during a tour match against Surrey during the tour of England in 1946.
Multiple records tumbled on Tuesday as Tanush Kotian and Deshpande became the first No. 10 and No. 11 batters to score centuries in the history of Ranji Trophy. Both batters looked in fine touch as they ended up adding a massive 232 runs for the final wicket in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final.
The partnership ended when Deshpande was dismissed while Kotian remained unbeaten on 120 off 129 deliveries. From 337/9, the pair was able to take Mumbai to a mammoth total of 569.
While this was a first in Ranji Trophy, Kotian and Deshpande were the second pair to achieve this feat in first-class cricket. Back in 1946, Chandu Sarwate and Shute Banerjee were the first No.10 and No. 11 pairs to score centuries during a tour-match for India against English county side Surrey.
Overall, this was also the third time that an Indian batting pair was able to add 200 runs or more for the final wicket. Sarwate and Banerjee added 249 runs while the duo of Ajay Sharma and Maninder Singh added 233 runs for the final wicket against Bombay in the 1991-92 Ranji Trophy semifinal.
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