Feature image:  Twitter/ @BCCIdomestic

There seems to be no stopping Sarfaraz Khan in the Ranji Trophy, as he followed his triple hundred in his previous game with a double century against Himachal Pradesh at Dharamshala’s HPCA Stadium. The middle-order batsman is batting on 226 not out at stumps, with hopes of a second consecutive triple century still on the horizon when play resumes the next morning.

Just like in the Ranji Trophy game against Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai were in a spot of bother at 16/3 when Sarfaraz came out to bat. The 22-year-old forged a good 56 run partnership with Siddhesh Lad, before the veteran batsman was dismissed by Raghav Dhawan. Lad’s replacement, Aditya Tare though kept the charge going for Mumbai, as he and Sarfaraz dominated the second session of play.

Sarfaraz excelled in playing his natural, attacking cricket as he piled up the runs at a quick rate. The middle-order batsman, who represents Kings XI Punjab in the VIVO Indian Premier Leagues, smashed 32 fours and four sixes in his knock against Himachal Pradesh. He got to his double hundred with a trademark boundary, and Mumbai ended the day’s play at 372/5.

Sarfaraz forged a partnership of 143 runs with Mumbai captain Aditya Tare, and then added a further 157 runs with new batsman Shubham Ranjane. He now has scored in excess of 500 runs in the Ranji Trophy without once being dismissed, and is Mumbai’s leading run-scorer for the 2019-20 season.

The youngster became only the tenth batsman to score back-to-back double hundreds in a Ranji Trophy game, and is only the second player after WV Raman to follow up a triple hundred with a double century. He also became just the third cricketer from Mumbai to record successive double hundreds, following on the footsteps of Rusi Modi and Dilip Vengsarkar.