Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Final, Day 1: Saurashtra vs Bengal – Manoj Tiwary's milestone game, Cheteshwar Pujara batting at No.6 and more stats

The first day of the 2019/20 Ranji Trophy final slowly began to turn towards Bengal as Saurashtra ended the day on 206/5 after electing to bat first. Bengal bowlers failed to pick a wicket in the morning session as the opening stand worth 82 lasted 37.5 overs. Avi Barot and Vishvaraj Jadeja scored 54 runs apiece as Saurashtra stood 163/2 at one stage but lost three wickets for 43 runs in the last 15 overs. Cheteshwar Pujara, suffering a throat infection since the morning, walked to bat at No.6. He batted 24 balls for 5 runs before retiring hurt as he felt discomfort.

All the statistical highlights from the first day’s play of the Ranji Trophy 2019/20 final:

2 – This final is marked to be Manoj Tiwary’s 100th appearance in a Ranji Trophy match. He has played all those 100 Ranji games for his home state, Bengal. Manoj is now only the 2nd player after Laxmi Ratan Shukla (116) to feature in 100+ Ranji Trophy matches for Bengal. Shukla and Tiwary are the only players to feature in 100 first-class games for the Bengal team.

3 – Only the 3rd time Cheteshwar Pujara batted at No.6 or a lower position in the Ranji Trophy. During the 2014/15 season, Pujara batted at No.9 in Saurashtra’s 2nd innings against Orissa. He scored an unbeaten 39 and was top-scorer in Saurashtra’s innings of 152/10. Pujara also batted at No.6 during Saurashtra’s chase of 162 at the start of the 2019/20 season where he scored 14.

8 – Pujara batted outside top five in the batting order only 8 times in his 203-match first-class career. Three instances were recorded in the Ranji Trophy and once in a Duleep Trophy match. In the 2007/08 season game against England Lions, Cheteshwar batted at No.6 in Saurashtra’s first innings and scored 28. However, he batted at No.3 in the 2nd innings while chasing a target of 25 runs.

Pujara also batted at No.6 on four occasions in Test cricket – 19 and 10 in the 2010 Durban Test vs South Africa, 2 runs in the 2011 Cape Town Test vs South Africa and 21 in the 2nd innings of the 2014 MCG Test against Australia.

33 – With the three wickets on the first day, Akash Deep became the leading wicket-taker for Bengal in this Ranji Trophy season. Prior to the start of the game, Akash’s tally was levelled on 30 wickets alongside Shahbaz Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar. Shahbaz picked one wicket on the first day while Mukesh went wicketless.

797 – Sheldon Jackson needs three more runs during the 2nd innings to become the first Saurashtra player to aggregate 800+ runs in three different editions of Ranji Trophy. Sheldon’s 797 runs in this season are the most by any player for Saurashtra and the 10th most for any player during this season.