Best first wicket partnership in Ranji Trophy 2015-16

Best first wicket partnership in Ranji Trophy 2015-16: Cricket, being a team-game, building up a partnership is of paramount importance for a team to put up a good score on the board and challenge the opposition. A good partnership at the top of the innings is a ‘dream start’ that any captain and the team would be looking out for.

After completion of seven rounds in the league stage, with two more rounds to go before the knock-out games commence, let us look into the best ‘opening partnership’ at this stage of the tourney.

The seventh game for Baroda, which incidentally was the sixth game for Punjab, in the seventh round of Group B match, was played between 15^th and 17^th November 2015, at Moti Bagh Stadium, Vadodara.

In the six previous games, Baroda had won 1, lost 3 and drawn 2 games. They were sitting with 9 points on the board. On the other hand, Punjab, in their 5 outings, had won 2, lost 1 and drawn 2 games. They had 17 points to their credit.

Punjab, led by Harbhajan Singh, won the toss and put in the hosts to bat. Baroda opened their innings with Kedar Devdhar and Aditya Waghmode. Prior to this game, Devdhar had featured in 36 matches (59 innings) and had scored 1,931 runs with 3 centuries and 12 half-centuries to his credit. His opening partner Waghmode had played in 39 matches (65 innings) and had accumulated 2,119 runs with 3 centuries and 17 half-centuries to his credit.

Taking on the Punjab bowlers which included big names like Gurkeerat Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh etc, both the openers, stayed put together for over four hours (256 minutes). In the 58.4 overs that they stayed together, both the batsmen were on the run-rampage. The duo added 245 runs for the first-wicket at a rate of 4.17 runs per over.

It was at this stage that Waghmode was ‘done in’ by Gurkeerat Singh, who had him caught by Jiwanjot Singh. Waghmode had compiled 96 runs, facing 184 deliveries, with the help of 14 fours and a solitary six. After registering his 18^th half-century, Waghmode, very narrowly missed on what would have been his 4^th first-class century.

This is the best partnership for the first-wicket in the tournament, thus far. Devdhar, on the other hand, went on to register his 4^th century (a well deserved one) and departed at the team’s score of 343/3, but not before scoring 186 runs off 249 deliveries, with 28 fours and a six, he occupied the crease for a little over six hours (365 minutes). This opening partnership of 245 runs was also the best partnership for any wicket in this match.