Ranji Trophy: Arunachal's Rahul Dalal falls short of VVS Laxman's 20-year-old record
Ranji Trophy: Arunachal Pradesh's Rahul Dalal is all set to emerge as the highest run-scorer in the ongoing tournament but was not able to go past VVS Laxman's record of 1415 runs in a single season.
HIGHLIGHTS
- VVS Laxman had scored 1415 runs in the 1999/00 season of the Ranji Trophy
- Rahul Dalal scored 1340 runs in the ongoing Ranji Trophy
- Sarfaraz Khan ended up with 928 runs from just 6 matches in Ranji Trophy
Arunachal Pradesh batsman Rahul Dalal missed out on breaking VVS Laxman's all-time Ranji Trophy record on Friday but still is all set to walk away with the honour of being the highest run-scorer in the 2019-20 season. As Rahul fell for 13 in Arunachal's 2nd innings against Meghalaya in Dibrugarh, Laxman's 1999-00 season tally of 1415 runs still remains the most ever runs scored in a single season of the Ranji Trophy.
Rahul's tally of 1340 runs is now the 2nd-highest ever in the tournament's history surpassing Meghalaya's last season hero Milind Kumar (1331). However, Rahul won't have any more chances of swelling his tally because Arunachal Pradesh haven't been able to win a single match this season and thus are already out of the race for quarter-finals.
If Rahul finishes the current season as the top run-scorer, it will mark the 2nd such feat in 2 years by a player from a North-East team since the Lodha reforms added one team from each of the 7 regional states in the Ranji Trophy.
Here are the top-5 run-getters in a single Ranji Trophy season:
| Season | Player | Runs |
|---|---|---|
| 1999/00 | VVS Laxman | 1415 |
| 2019/20 | Rahul Dalal | 1340 |
| 2018/19 | Milind Kumar | 1331 |
| 2015/16 | Shreyas Iyer | 1321 |
| 2016/17 | PK Panchal | 1310 |
Notably, the 1999-00 season proved to be a breakthrough one for Laxman as he soon played the innings of his life with an incredible 281 at the Eden Gardens vs Australia - an innings which changed the face of Indian cricket for times to come.
Another player who would be hoping his exploits this season turn out to be as life-changing as the 1999/00 one was for Laxman, is Sarfaraz Khan. Though he got out for just 6 runs on Friday in effectively Maharashtra's last game of the season, Sarfaraz has ended the 2019/20 Ranji Trophy with a total of 928 runs from just 6 matches!
3 hundreds including a triple and a double and a batting average of 154.67 while striking at a rate in excess of 75 should definitely put Sarfaraz in contention for an India spot soon.