3 Players who scored triple centuries in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy
Triple centuries in the near nine-decade history of the Ranji Trophy have been hard to come by over the years, ever since Vijay Hazare (316 not out) became the first player to score a triple hundred in the competition, when he did so for Maharashtra against Baroda in Pune back in 1940.
Following BB Nimbalkar's unbeaten 443 for Maharashtra against Kathiawar in 1948 in Pune, which remains the highest individual score by any player in the Ranji Trophy, Ajit Wadekar's 323-run knock for Mumbai against Mysore in 1967 was the only triple hundred in the competition for more than three decades till Sunil Gavaskar scored 340 against Bengal at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in 1982.
Since the turn of the century, the instances of triple centuries in the Ranji Trophy have more than doubled. Compared to one player doing so last season and three in 2017-18, three more players scored triple centuries during the recently-concluded 2019-20 Ranji Trophy season.
On that note, let us meet the trio that scored triple hundreds during the latest edition of the competition.
#3: Taruwar Kohli (307 not out) for Mizoram against Arunachal Pradesh
Taruwar Kohli scored an unbeaten 307 for Ranji Trophy rookies Mizoram against Arunachal Pradesh in a Group D league match in 2019-20 to register the first triple hundred of the Ranji season.
In the process, the 31-year-old joined an exclusive group of only five players to score multiple triple hundreds in the competition, having scored his first Ranji Trophy triple (300 not out) for Punjab against Jharkhand in 2012-13.
Despite Kohli scoring 998 runs in the competition, which was only behind Rahul Dalal's 1340 runs in the season scoring charts, Mizoram won only one of their nine games en route to finishing a lowly eighth in their group.
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#2: Manoj Tiwary (303 not out) for Bengal against Hyderabad
Coming in to bat at 14-2 in Bengal's group-stage game against Hyderabad in Kalyani, Manoj Tiwary converted his 27th first-class hundred into a maiden triple ton as the veteran right-hander's unbeaten knock of 303 led his team to a mammoth first-innings total of 635-7.
It was the first triple hundred in the Ranji Trophy by a Bengal player since Devang Gandhi scored 323 against Assam in Guwahati in 1998.
Interestingly enough, the margin of Bengal's innings victory - 303 runs was the exact tally of runs Tiwary scored in the game.
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#1: Sarfaraz Khan (301 not out) for Mumbai against Uttar Pradesh
Following a cooling-off period of one year, Sarfaraz Khan announced his return to the Mumbai team with a scintillating unbeaten inning of 301 runs in a league match against his former team Uttar Pradesh.
In reply to Uttar Pradesh's mammoth first innings score of 625, Mumbai found themselves in a spot of strife at 128-4 when Khan walked out to the middle. Stroking 30 boundaries and eight hits over the fence, the 22-year-old's innings helped his team to a vital first-innings lead in a high-scoring game which ended without a decisive result.
In the process, Khan emulated Vijay Merchant, Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Wasim Jaffer, and Rohit Sharma to score a Ranji Trophy triple hundred for Mumbai.