Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawane on Friday broke a 70-year-old partnership record for all wickets in the Ranji Trophy championship when they stitched a massive, unfinished stand of 594 for Maharashtra against Delhi in a Group B match at the Wankhede Stadium here.
When Maharashtra applied closure to their first innings, Gugale was unbeaten on a career-best 351, that contained 5 sixes and 37 fours off 521 balls, while his third wicket partner Bawane remained unconquered, also on a career-best 258 laced with 2 sixes and 18 fours.
The duo, who had come together within 45 minutes of play starting on the first day on Thursday, were unseparated after breaking the previous all-time best fourth wicket partnership record of 577 set by Vijay Hazare and Gul Mohammed for Baroda against Holkar way back in 1946-47 in Baroda. Maharashtra declared their first innings closed at 635 for 2 to which Delhi replied with 21 without loss in five overs before stumps with openers Unmukht Chand (4) and Mohit Sharma (14) at the crease.
Punjab in strong position
lahli: Punjab suffered a batting collapse but still enjoyed an upper hand courtesy impressive knocks from captain Yuvraj Singh and Gurkeerat Singh and superb bowling from pacer Manpreet Gony on the second day of their Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh.
Punjab resumed the day at 347 for 3 but could add just 31 runs from 19.2 overs at the expense of seven wickets to be all out at 378 in the morning session. They are still in a strong position after restricting MP to 182 for 5 at stumps on Friday.
Yuvraj, who is out of favour as far as national team is concerned, could add just 13 runs to his overnight 164 while another centurion Gurkeerat, who resumed the day at 101, scored just two runs more before being the first man out on Friday.
Bengal score 466 against UP
Jaipur: Manish Tiwary cracked a superb century as Bengal posted 466 in their first innings and then reduced Uttar Pradesh to 126-3 on day two of their Group A match.
Starting at an individual overnight score of 1, Tiwary produced 15 boundaries in his 150-ball innings and was the last man to be dismissed for 110 as he batted with the lower-order batsmen to take Bengal across the 450-mark.