Maharashtra pair create World record for domestic first-class partnership

10/14/2016

Maharashtra's Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawne created history today with an unbeaten 594-run partnership – a new world record for the domestic first-class circuit - against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy. Pakistan's Rafatullah Mohmand and Aamer Sajjad had held the domestic record of 580 since 2010.

Gugale opened the innings with Harshad Khadiwale, but the latter was sent packing in the fifth over for a score of just 10. Chirag Khurana then joined the 25-year-old at the crease but did not fare any better than Khadiwale.

When Bawne walked onto the Wankhede pitch yesterday with his team in desperate trouble at 41/2 after just eight overs, the thought of breaking the domestic record would not have crossed the 23-year-old's mind.

The duo started their long partnership yesterday in the first session of the day and played an incredible 165 overs, till Maharashtra decided to declare with the scoreboard reading 635/2 in the last session of Day 2. When they finally returned to the dressing room for the last time, Bawne had 258 (18x4, 2x6) to his name off 500 balls, while Gugale had crossed the 351 (37x4, 5x6) off 521 balls. Gugale spent an absurd 717 minutes on the field while scoring his unbeaten triple century.

Both players had almost identical highest scores going into the match with Gugale (174) having a slight advantage over his younger team-mate (172).

After the monumental effort they put in, Gugale and Bawne will be slightly disappointed at not having broken the World record of 624 runs put up by Sri Lankan legends Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene against South Africa in 2006. The Indian duo were only 30 runs off the record, and whether it was the team's decision to call them back in the hopes of winning the game or just because they were unaware of the record is unknown.

Delhi ended the day at 21/0 after five overs and will need a Gugale-Bawne of their own if they have any hopes of getting back into this game.