Prithvi Shaw Slams Third Fastest Double Ton
Chandigarh: Opener Prithvi Shaw hit the third-fastest double century by an Indian batsman in first-class cricket as Maharashtra set Chandigarh an impressive target of 464 on the third day of the Group B Ranji Trophy match on Monday. Goa were 129 for one with Arjun Azad and skipper Manan Vohra batting 63 and 53 respectively.
But the day belonged to Shaw, who reached a double century in just 141 balls in Maharashtra’s second innings of the match.
He is currently behind only Ravi Shastri (123 balls against Baroda in 1985) and Tanmay Agarwal (119 balls against Arunachal Pradesh in 2024).
Maharashtra batted quickly at 359 for their third innings in just 52 overs, led by Shaw.
The 25-year-old Indian player hit 29 fours and five sixes in his magnificent innings while hitting 222 in just 156 balls.
He was batting on 41 throughout the night.
This was Shaw’s first Ranji hundred for Maharashtra. He scored his 14th first-class hundred, reaching three figures from just 72 balls.
In his Ranji debut for Maharashtra, he had scored 75 in the second innings against Kerala after falling for a duck in the first attempt.
Command against Goa lies with Karnataka
At Shivamogga, legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun was working hard to save Goa with his brave batting after the Karnataka bowlers batted at regular intervals to put their team in a commanding position.
On the third day, as young Tendulkar batted for 43 and Mohit Redkar accompanied him with 24, Goa responded to former champions Karnataka’s first innings total of 371 by reaching 171 for six.
Tendulkar’s knock included five fours and a six and resulted in 115 runs off 11 balls after Karnataka reduced Goa to 115 for six.
The duo of Tendulkar and Redkar added 56 runs for the seventh wicket to bring some respectability to their team’s total after Abhilash Shetty and Vidwath Kaverappa combined to drop five out of six wickets on the day.
Resuming the day at 28 for one, Goa had a poor start as they lost Suyash Prabhudessai by just one run and they continued to lose wickets at regular intervals until Tendulkar and Redkar came to the team’s rescue with their determined batting.
But despite their valiant efforts with the bat, Karnataka remained in control of the match and were a full 200 runs ahead of Goa.
Lalit Yadav made 36 off 96 balls for Goa despite most of the top-order and middle-order batsmen failing to fire.
Earlier on the second day, Karun Nair made his 25th first-class hundred to lift Karnataka to a strong position on the rain-hit second day.
Karun, who was recently left out of the India Test squad after a middling series in England, scored 174 off 267 balls.
Quick points:
At Chandigarh: Maharashtra: 313 all out and 359/3 in 52 overs (Prithvi Shaw 222) vs Chandigarh: 209 in 73 overs and 129/1 in 34 overs (Arjun Azad 63 batting, Manan Vohra 53 batting).
At Shivamogga: Karnataka: 371 all out in 110.1 overs (Karun Nair 174 not out, Shreyas Gopal 57; Arjun Tendulkar 3/100, Vasuki Koushik 3/35) vs Goa 171 for six in 77 overs (Arjun Tendulkar 43 not out; Abhilash 3/63)
At Rajkot: Saurashtra: 260, vs Madhya Pradesh: 355/9 in 135 overs (Yash Dubey 159, Saransh Jain 103 batting; Jaidev Unadkat 4/33).
At Mullanpur: Punjab: 436 in 163.4 overs (Harnoor Singh 170, Prerit Dutta 74; Ankit Sharma 4/103) vs Kerala: 158/4 in 63 overs (Ankit Sharma 62).
