Stats: Rahul Dalal scores all the 74 runs during his partnership with Rakesh Kumar in Ranji Trophy

Rahul Dalal is having a dream 2019/20 Indian domestic season with the bat as he is now only four runs away from completing 2000 runs across all formats. Rahul, who previously played for Haryana, switched to Arunachal Pradesh ahead of this season. He made a solid start scoring 736 runs across 15 innings in the limited-overs with help of eight half-centuries. The Ranji Trophy has been a productive one for Dalal as he is the only player with 1000+ runs in this tournament at the end of day 2 of the Round 8 matches

He has aggregated 1260 runs across 14 innings he played thus far at an impressive average of 114.54. Rahul Dalal struck five fifties and four centuries; all being 150+ scores including two unbeaten double tons. Despite all his efforts, Arunachal has lost four of the previous seven games and conceded the first-innings lead in the three drawn games. He has a maximum of three innings to score 156 runs and break VVS Laxman’s record for most runs in a Ranji Trophy season.

In the ongoing round 8 game against Bihar, Arunachal posted 351 runs in their first innings all thanks to a brilliant 190-run knock from Rahul Dalal. The No.4 batsman scored 190 off 229 balls with 30 fours and a six. Dalal walked to bat when Arunachal were 68/2 in the 31st over and had scored 116 by the time they lost their 6th wicket at the score of 248 in 81st over. For the next 19 overs, all the runs scored by the Arunachal Pradesh team came from the Rahul Dalal’s bat

He shared a 74-run partnership for the 7th wicket alongside No.8 batsman Rakesh Kumar in 19.1 overs. Rakesh didn’t score even a run across the 25 balls he faced during this partnership. Rahul scored all the 74 runs in the 90 balls he faced before he eventually got out on 190. This partnership between Rahul and Rakesh is only the 5th known stand in the history of first-class cricket where all the runs were scored by only one batter and the first such in Indian domestic cricket.

During this Ranji season, Gujarat’s Chintan Gaja scored 48 out of the 50-run stand with the No.11 batsman against Kerala while the remaining two runs came via extras. The highest partnership where 100% of contribution was made by one player in FC cricket is 75 runs. During an FC game between MCC and Yorkshire in 1946, the MCC skipper Robert Robbins shared a 75-run stand with the No.11 batsman Jack Young. Robins scored all those 75 runs and finished with 116 out of team’s 192-run total.

(Stats as on February 5, 2020)