There is no denying the fact that in the ongoing season of Ranji Trophy, Mumbai, who are known to win games dominantly are going through a rough phase, but, Sarfaraz Khan has found a new lust of scoring hundreds is reaching new heights with each passing game. He carried forward the purple patch of his life when he racked up another century- his third in just innings this season.
Khan came into bat during the match against Madhya Pradesh in a familiar situation- reeling at 3 for 71 after having lost the prized wickets of Suryakumar Yadav [43] and Siddesh Lad [4] in quick succession. But he seems to have been loving such situations as he kept on playing with his natural game and blazed away to an unbeaten 177 off 210 balls with the help of 24 fours and three sixes.
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Sarfaraz had an able company in opener Aakarshit Gomel who racked up a patient 122 [off 240 balls] as Mumbai posted a mammoth score of 427/10 in their first innings. Three years ago, Khan was on the downside of his career. He was released by the IPL franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore following his series of failures and fitness-related issues. He had also left Mumbai to tread on unchartered territories of Uttar Pradesh with little success.
Upon his return to Mumbai, Sarfaraz had a lean start to his 2019-20 season of the Ranji Trophy as he scored just 8 runs in his opening innings and Karnataka. He made a comeback in the second innings when he scored an unbeaten 71 out of Mumbai’s total tally of 149. But, it was just calm before the eventual Sarfaraz-storm.
The right-hander blasted a whirlwind 301- an innings which included 30 fours and eight sixes- against Uttar Pradesh and followed it up with another sumptuous double century [226 off 213 balls; 32 fours and 4 sixes] against Himachal Pradesh before following it up with a 78 and 25 against Saurashtra.
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Sarfaraz is quickly climbing the batting charts for the most runs in a season is concerned. In just 8 innings, he has amassed as many as 914 runs at an average of 228.50 with two half-centuries and three [daddy] hundreds.
