The veteran Indian batsman, Ajinkya Rahane became the first Indian to play for English County team Hampshire, achieved a huge landmark by becoming only the third Indian cricketer to score a century on County Championship debut. Coincidentally, he achieved this feat on the same day when Team India landed in England to take part in the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019.
Playing against Nottinghamshire, Rahane scored just 10 runs in the first innings but in the second innings, he showed his real colors by scoring 119 runs off 197 balls on Day three of the match on Wednesday. His knock included 14 boundaries.
🗣️ "I wanted to make it count and I think we needed that partnership."
📺 Hear the thoughts of @ajinkyarahane88 following his century on day three via the Hampshire Cricket App ⬇️
📲 iOS: https://t.co/3H80EnOA4p
📲 Android: https://t.co/gImTwZuJKX pic.twitter.com/47k7pdE3ef
— Hampshire Cricket (@hantscricket) May 22, 2019
The other two Indian players to score a century on County debut before Rahane were Piyush Chawla (for Sussex in 2009) and Murali Vijay (for Essex in 2018). Resuming on his overnight score of 0 not out, Jinx along with Sam Northeast (133) steadied the innings for Hampshire who was reeling at 9-2 in the morning and then put on 257 runs for the third wicket.
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Rahane came out to bat in the fifth over of the innings and was bowled by off-spinner Matthew Carter before Tea in the 70th over. The hosts declared on 367-5 after Tom Alsop (51 not out) scored his half-century, setting Nottinghamshire a target of 439 to win.
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The Indian Test specialist has not been part of India’s ODI setup for more than a year now and he also didn’t have the greatest of IPL seasons where he even lost his captaincy mid-way in the tournament to Australia’s Steve Smith after Rajasthan Royals’ lost quite a few matches in the start of the tournament. After being relieved of the captaincy duties, Rahane became a different batsman as he scored a century and finished the season with 393 runs in 14 outings.
