Sarfaraz Khan ends Ranji Trophy season on a high, piles up a mammoth 982 runs for Mumbai

Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan finished his Ranji Trophy campaign on a high, piling up an incredible 982 runs in just six matches. Sarfaraz ended his Ranji Trophy season as the leading run-scorer. He smashed a quickfire 45 off 48 balls in Mumbai's second innings against Madhya Pradesh in the final game of the ongoing edition. The 24-year-old had earlier scored a century in the game's opening innings.

Sarfaraz scored four centuries and two half-centuries in the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy season with an impressive average of 122.75. Sarfaraz scored a double-century in Mumbai's first game against Saurashtra before registering scores of 165 against Odisha and 153 against Uttarkhand. He scored 63 and 48 against Goa, 40 and 59* against Uttar Pradesh, and now 134 and 45 against Madhya Pradesh. 

Only three players have ever had more than 900 runs in two or more seasons in the Ranji Trophy's history, and Sarfaraz is one of them. Sarfaraz amassed 982 runs in the ongoing edition after scoring 928 runs in 2019–20. He is the only cricketer to have done it in back-to-back Ranji Trophy seasons. The other two batsmen with over 900 runs in two different Ranji Trophy seasons are Wasim Jaffer and Ajay Sharma.

Sarfaraz is now only behind Sir Donald Bradman in terms of batting average in first-class cricket. For batters with more than 2000 runs in the format, Sarfaraz has the second-highest average. Former Australian cricketer Don Bradman, who scored 28,067 runs in 234 games during his first-class career, averaged 95.14, the highest in the world for batters with more than 2000 runs.

Mumbai vs Madhya Pradesh

As far as the ongoing Ranji Trophy final is concerned, Madhya Pradesh are looking set to lift their maiden title following a solid performance against 41-time champions Mumbai. MP restricted Mumbai to 374 runs in the first innings of the match before hitting a mammoth 536 runs to take a massive lead. Mumbai were then bowled out for 269 runs, setting MP a target of 108 runs to win the match on Day 5. Madhya Pradesh are currently batting at 22-1. Even if the match ends in a draw, MP will lift the title courtesy of their lead in the first innings. 

Image: Twitter/@BCCIDomestic