Was not aware about the record, says Swapnil Gugale

Maharashtra batsmen Swapnil Gugale and Ankeet Bawane entered the record books with a brilliant partnership. The duo put on an unbeaten 594-run stand against Delhi in the round 2 encounter at Mumbai. Maharashtra declared the innings on 635/2 in their first innings. Gugale remained unbeaten on 351 off 521 balls with 37 fours and 5 sixes.

His partner Ankeet Bawane, who also looked set for a triple ton, remained unbeaten on 258 off 500 balls with 18 fours and 2 sixes. Swapnil Gugale was named as the stand-in captain for the match in absence of Kedar Jadhav. Jadhav, the regular Maharashtra skipper, is on national duty. Gugale had a dream captaincy debut.

Swapnil became the 36th batsman to score a triple ton in Ranji Trophy. He became the 4th batsman from Maharashtra to score a triple century after Vijay Hazare, BB Nimbalkar and Kedar Jadhav. He got his fair bit of luck too. He was dropped on 38 by Unmukt Chand and later Nitish Rana dropped a sitter when he was on 105.

He made the most out of the opportunity and moved to his triple century in 473 balls in the last session of day 2. Talking to the ANI after the match, Gugale revealed that they did not know about the record.

A tweet from ANI read, “Feeling very happy; regret missing the world record mark by 30 runs now as we were not aware then: Swapnil Gugale on breaking Ranji record.”

Also read – Swapnil Gugale scores triple ton on captaincy debut

He mentioned that they now regret their decision to declare. He said that had they known about the record, they would have scored 30 more runs and entered the record books. Their partnership of unbeaten 594 is the second highest ever in FC cricket. Sri Lankan pair of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene hold the record for highest partnership.

Playing for Sri Lanka against South Africa in 2006, they had put on 624 runs for the 3rd wicket at Colombo.