[Watch] Karun Nair reaches his maiden century for Northamptonshire with a delightful ramp shot
Indian batter Karun Nair reached his maiden century for Northamptonshire with a sensational ramp shot over third man in the County Champion Division One fixture against Surrey on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old joined the County side for their final three games of the Championship and made an immediate impact in his first outing against Warwickshire. Nair scored a sublime 78 in his first innings from 24/2 to help the side post a competitive 250 on the board.
Unfortunately, his valiant knock went in vain as the Northants suffered their eighth defeat in 12 games to remain at the bottom of the points table. However, Nair reached an admirable 6,000 first-class runs during the innings.
The Karnataka batter again entered with the side in trouble at 51/2 in the ongoing game against Surrey. Yet, displaying tremendous composure and his full array of shots, Karun Nair reached his century with an elegant ramp off a good-length delivery from Daniel Worrall off 184 deliveries.
Here is a video of the shot that took Nair to his century and his raise of the bat following the landmark.
Karun Nair's impressive batting took Northants to a strong position at 306/7 at lunch on Day 2. With the side almost ascertained to finish last in the points table, Nair's batting could be the lone silver lining to the climax of their disastrous season.
Following this game, the right-hander will play Northamptonshire's Championship season finale against Essex from September 26 to 29.
A snapshot at Karun Nair's domestic and international career
Karun Nair represented Karnataka in the Indian domestic circuit from 2012 until his recent move to Vidharbha for the upcoming season.
The Rajasthan-born batter was a vital cog for the state until the Ranji Trophy last year, following which Nair has not been featured in Karnataka's playing XI.
The 31-year-old debuted in first-class cricket in the 2013-2014 season and helped Karnataka lift the Ranji Trophy with three consecutive centuries, including hundreds in the quarter-final and the semi-final.
Nair continued his heroic run the following season with an incredible triple century in the final against Tamil Nadu to help Karnataka repeat as Ranji champions. His 328 remains the highest score in a Ranji Trophy final.
In 2015-16, the right-hander made it a hattrick of impressive seasons, leading to his selection to the Indian ODI and Test squads.
In his debut series against England at home, Nair became only the second Indian batter to score a triple-century after former opening batter Virender Sehwag. It was only his third career Test as the Karnataka batter smashed the English bowlers for a magnificent 303* in the final game at Chennai.
Despite his stellar knock, Nair was dropped for good following a poor Test series against Australia, leading to a considerable dip in form across formats for Karnataka.
Nevertheless, the elegant batter boasts an average of over 60 in Tests thanks to his triple-century and has also scored over 11,000 runs across formats at the first-class level.
Karun Nair has also played two ODIs for India without making much of an impression, with 46 runs at an average of 23 and a strike rate of 52.27.