Sarfaraz and Shardul impress, Rinku scales new heights: Major talking points from Ranji Trophy round five

Rinku Singh notches his career-best first-class score (again)

Rinku Singh was instrumental as Uttar Pradesh registered a first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy fifth-round game against Tamil Nadu. Riding on Baba Indrajith and Andre Siddharth's tons, the south Indian side put 455 on the board in the first innings.

In reply, Uttar Pradesh started strong, with opener Abhishek Goswami slamming a half-century. But his dismissal triggered a collapse as they went from 148-1 to 191-5, leaving them with only a fleeting chance to overhaul TN’s first-innings total.

That was when Rinku Singh stepped up. He first added 104 runs with Shivam Mavi, another 53 with Shivam Sharma, 59 with Kartik Yadav, and by the time he became the ninth UP wicket to fall, they were just 12 runs short of TN’s total. The India T20I batter slammed 176 in an innings laced with 17 fours and six maximums, his highest first-class score.

Notably, in only his previous Ranji match, Rinku had scored 165* against Andhra, his then-top FC score, helping Uttar Pradesh finish with a first-innings lead. He now averages 59.30 in first-class cricket, seventh-most for an Indian batter with at least 2000 runs in the format.

India's fringe Test players continue to impress

India’s fringe players continued knocking on the door for a possible Test recall. Sarfaraz Khan, Shardul Thakur and Karun Nair all excelled in their respective Ranji Trophy fifth-round games.

Sarfaraz, who had been having a middling season so far, returned to form with a 67 for Mumbai against Puducherry at the Wankhede. While Siddhesh Lad, Akash Anand and Shardul Thakur stole the limelight, he played a crucial knock from No.5, and will hope to build on it – even as his India teammates appear to have their own struggles.

Shardul brought his all-round game to the fore yet again in Ranji Trophy. He slammed a quickfire 32-ball 56 before picking up two wickets in the first over and another in the fifth of Puducherry’s first innings. He took a combined five wickets across the two innings to condemn Puducherry to an innings defeat.

Nair, meanwhile, built on his supreme form to hit 95 against Chandigarh in Hubballi to add to his collection of a double century, a hundred and a fifty in the previous rounds of the Ranji Trophy season.

The domestic system continues to churn out run machines

Even as the senior men’s team focuses on pitches that substantially reduce the effect their batters could have on the game, the domestic factory continues to churn out batters. Abhinav Tejrana, Ravichandran Smaran and Andre Siddarth all got into three figures to add to their already brilliant Ranji season.

Goa’s Tejrana scored 118 in his side’s innings defeat to Saurashtra to take his season tally to 651 runs. He now has a double century, two hundreds and two fifties in five matches this season, and averages a whopping 93 in his five-match old first-class career.

Karnataka’s Smaran slammed a second double century of the season, this time against Chandigarh in Hubballi. His 227-run knock took him to 595 runs for the season at 119. Overall, he now has 1179 runs in first-class cricket, scored at 78.60, with four hundreds and three fifties.

Tamil Nadu’s teenage star, Andre Siddarth scored his first century of the season, against Uttar Pradesh, to add to his two half-centuries from earlier in the season. He was among the star performers for his side in the 2024/25 Ranji Trophy, scoring 612 runs in 12 innings, which earned him a spot in the Duleep Trophy South Zone side.

He was also the second youngest player to be picked up in last year’s IPL auction (at 18 years), behind only Vaibhav Suryavanshi, signing a deal with Chennai Super Kings. He has been released ahead of the upcoming auction for next season, though.

Unexpected all-rounders: Shreyas Gopal and Saransh Jain shine with bat and ball

Karnataka’s Shreyas Gopal and Madhya Pradesh’s Saransh Jain have been in supreme form this season, and have shown why they can be considered genuine all-rounders.

While Smaran’s 227 stole the show, Gopal first scored a 62 and then ran through the Chandigarh batting line-up, finishing with figures of 7-73, to help his side enforce a follow-on. He then returned to bag another three wickets to register a second 10-for this season, falling a wicket short of his career-best 11-153, which came earlier this term against Saurashtra.

The brilliant all-round outing took his tally to 27 wickets for the season at 17.51, and 290 runs with the bat at 58, in five games.

Saransh Jain continued his rich vein of form as well, picking up six wickets and scoring a half-century against Kerala. Having picked three important wickets in the first innings, he was Madhya Pradesh’s top scorer with 67 as they unsuccessfully tried to overhaul Kerala’s first-innings total of 281.

He was then MP’s top wicket-taker and run-getter in the second innings with three more scalps and 31 runs, but couldn’t save his side from a heavy defeat. Overall, Jain now has 361 runs at 90.25 this season with a hundred and two fifties, and 19 wickets at 19.47, in four games.

Amit Shukla's eye-popping five-for without conceding a run

Services’ Amit Shukla was one of the most remarkable performers of the fifth round of India’s premier first-class competition. Against Haryana in the first innings, the left-arm spinner completed his fifer without conceding a single run.

Opening the bowling in Rohtak, he took all the first five Haryana wickets, picking up one each in his first three overs and two in the fourth. Thanks to his mind-boggling spell, the home side finished day one at 20-5 in reply to Services’ 205.

Shukla picked up three more wickets in the first innings to finish with figures of 8-27. Services set Haryana a target of 378 in the fourth innings, where he took another three wickets to finish with his career-best figures of 11-86, and help his side register a handsome 211-run win.

The 22-year-old now has 43 wickets in eight first-class matches at 16.90.

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