Ranji Trophy 2019-20, Round 5 – Pujara's record double, Sanjay's sixes fest, Dogra’s one-man show and more stats

The 5th round of Ranji Trophy 2019-20 was occupied by some special individual performances. Cheteshwar Pujara smashed 248 against Karnataka in his first inning of 2020. His record-breaking knock helped Saurashtra push the visiting team to follow-on.

Kerala’s maiden win of the season by defeating Punjab with a 21-run margin, Jammu & Kashmir’s 4th win out of five matches this season and Odisha’s thrilling 1-wicket win over Haryana were notable results from this round. The much-hyped contest between Tamil Nadu and Mumbai at the Chepauk ended in a draw with the visiting side taking the first-innings lead.

All the major records and stats created during the 5th round of the Ranji Trophy 2019-20:

Cheteshwar Pujara’s records:

13 – Cheteshwar Pujara’s 248 against Karnataka was his 13th double century in first-class cricket equaling Kumar Sangakkara’s Asian record of most FC 200s. Pujara is the 18th player overall to smash 13 FC double tons. He got there in 198 matches; the 3rd quickest after Sir Donald Bradman (71 matches) and Bill Ponsford (157 matches).

Stats: Cheteshwar Pujara scores his 13th double century in first-class cricket

7 – Pujara became only the third player to smash seven double centuries in Ranji Trophy after Paras Dogra (9) and Ajay Sharma (7). It was also his 50th century in first-class cricket making him the 9th Indian with the feat. Pujara also completed 6000 runs in Ranji Trophy during his 248-run knock and became the 4th quickest to reach there taking only 104 innings.

Stats: Indian players with 50 centuries in first-class cricket

Meghalaya’s record win:

Inns & 425 runs – Meghalaya’s innings and 425-run win against Mizoram is the 3rd biggest win by an innings margin in Ranji Trophy. Assam defeated Tripura by innings and 472 runs against Tripura in 1991/92 while Bombay thumped Sind by innings and 453 runs in the 1947/48 season.

Rahul Dalal’s big knock:

4 – Rahul Dalal aggregated 303 runs for Arunachal Pradesh against Nagaland as he scored 267* and 36*. It was the 2nd time Rahul aggregated 300+ runs in a Ranji match as he scored 178 and 205* during the 3rd round against Mizoram.

VVS Laxman in 1999/00, Ravindra Jadeja in 2012/13 and Mayank Agarwal in 2017/18 are the other players to aggregate 300+ runs in a Ranji Trophy match twice in the same season. Jadeja struck two triple hundreds in the 2012/13 edition and is the only player with multiple triple tons in a Ranji season.

Sanjay Yadav’s sixes fest:

13 – Number of sixes hit by R Sanjay Yadav in Meghalaya’s first innings against Mizoram. These are the joint 2nd most number of sixes hit during a Ranji inning. Shakti Singh against Haryana in 1990/91 and Ishan Kishan in 2016/17 against Delhi struck 14 maximums in an innings.

Rishabh Pant also struck 13 sixes during a Ranji innings against Jharkhand in the same match where Ishan hit 14 sixes while Ravi Shastri too hit 13 maximums during his famous double ton against Baroda in 1984/85.

440* – The unbeaten partnership of 440 between DB Ravi Teja and R Sanjay Yadav is the 5th highest partnership in the first-class cricket for the 5th wicket and the 2nd highest in Ranji Trophy. The Saurashtra pair of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja shared an unbeaten 520-run stand in the 2008/09 Ranji season match against Orissa; the only 500-run stand for the 5th or lower wicket in FC history.

Paras Dogra’s one-man show:

74.62 – Paras Dogra accounted for 74.62 per cent of Puducherry’s first-innings total against Goa; the highest per cent of runs scored by an individual during a completed innings in Ranji Trophy. Dogra scored 194 while Puducherry were bowled out for only 260 in their first inning. The previous highest per cent was 71.17 by Probir Sen who alone scored 79 runs in Bengal’s second inning total of 111/10 against Holkar in the 1953/54 semi-final.

95.15 – Paras Dogra scored 95.15 per cent of Puducherry’s 103-run 10th wicket partnership with Sagar Udeshi during the first innings. Dogra scored 98 runs from 67 balls during that partnership while the No.11 batter Udeshi scored 4 off 21 balls. Another run was an extra run coming via wide or leg-bye.

Dogra’s contribution of 95.15 is the 2nd highest in any known century partnership in first-class history. Henry Enthoven contributed 95.33 per cent of the 107-run partnership with Wilfred Price for the 10th wicket in Middlesex’s first innings against Sussex in the 1930 County game. Enthoven scored 102 runs of the 107-run stand but Price scored only 3 runs while other two runs came through extras.

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