Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan’s exceptional run in domestic cricket continued on Tuesday, January 17 against Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. He slammed his third century in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2022-23 season. The right-handed batter was dejected last week after he couldn’t make it to India’s test squad for the first two games in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. However, he has once again established his credentials, with an outstanding knock.
Delhi skipper Himmat Singh won the toss and opted to bowl first against Mumbai. The visitors got off to a good start, as Prithvi Shaw displayed his brilliant range of shots. However, after the opener’s dismissal, Mumbai suffered a mini-collapse. They were reduced to 110 runs with five wickets down. Sarfaraz Khan had an uphill task on hand to pull his team out of trouble, and the middle-order batter was up to it.
The prolific run-scorer got together with Shams Mulani to put on 114 runs for the sixth-wicket stand. Shams Mulani was dismissed for 39 runs, while Sarfaraz Khan continued from one end. The 25-year-old slammed sixteen boundaries and four sixes, as he scored 125 runs at a strike rate of 80.65. Mumbai managed to score 293 runs before getting bowled out.
1️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ runs
1️⃣6️⃣ fours
4️⃣ sixesSarfaraz Khan smashed a splendid century on Day 1️⃣ against Delhi 🙌🏻 #RanjiTrophy | #DELvMUM | @mastercardindia
Relive his knock here 🎥https://t.co/ga2p3Q7Jjp pic.twitter.com/oY2slmmXZb
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 17, 2023
Sarfaraz Khan is only second to Don Bradman in the highest first-class career batting averages chart. He averages 81.51 in first-class cricket, since his debut in 2014. In Ranji Trophy 2022-23 season so far, the right-handed batter has scored 556 runs at an average of 111.20. This is his third successive season with 100-plus average.
Let’s take a look at how Twitterati reacted to Sarfaraz Khan’s century against Delhi:
Sarfaraz Khan, The run machine. pic.twitter.com/jrFSR2IbQK
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 17, 2023
Yet another 100 for Sarfaraz Khan. In testing conditions too at the Kotla pic.twitter.com/LkUWraNlHD
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) January 17, 2023
Unstoppable Sarfaraz Khan 💯🔥 pic.twitter.com/UFlho53PRj
— RVCJ Media (@RVCJ_FB) January 17, 2023
Sarfaraz Khan, take a bow! These runs and centuries are laughing on the national selectors, they are joke!!
— Anirudha M (@a8m4) January 17, 2023
Another day, another brilliant century by Sarfaraz Khan. pic.twitter.com/9nd6kv8bnF
— Shayan Acharya (@ShayanAcharya) January 17, 2023
Sarfaraz Khan, who topped the run charts in the previous season with 982 runs, currently has over 500 runs in this season, at an average of 110 plus with THREE hundreds. #RanjiTrophy
— Ayan (@ayan_acharya13) January 17, 2023
Sarfaraz Khan – simply sensational. Those who say he’s not fit haven’t watched him run. You can’t score runs for three seasons back to back without being cricket fit.
— Shashank Kishore (@captainshanky) January 17, 2023
https://twitter.com/I_am_DipC/status/1615306275843375104?s=20&t=afiRmbBPXTBreQYmtjUaRw
DON Bradman of Ranji Trophy Sarfaraz Khan. He should get chance in Test cricket @bcci give him a chance.#CricketTwitter #BabarAzam #cricketnews # pic.twitter.com/x0ZgnnnMuR
— Harsh (@harshjawlkar18) January 17, 2023
I wasn’t able to sleep the whole night: Sarfaraz Khan opens up after India selection snub
Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan opened up on the Indian team selection snub for the test series against Australia. He expressed that he wasn’t able to sleep thinking about the reasons for his non-selection. The right-hander added that he will not give up and will keep trying to get into the Indian team. Speaking to The Indian Express, Sarfaraz Khans said,
“Everywhere I go, I hear murmurs that he will play for India soon. On social media, I have thousands of messages talking about my exclusion. Sab bolte hain tera time aayega (everyone says your time will come). I came from Assam to Delhi the day after the selection and wasn’t able to sleep the whole night. I kept asking why am I not there? But now after speaking to my father, I’m back to normal. I will never give up the practice, I will not go under depression. Don’t worry, I will keep trying.”
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