Shardul Thakur smashed his maiden FC century during the semifinal match against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy 2024 season.
Shardul Thakur hits maiden FC Century
The right-hander scored his first century in the first-class format on day 02 of the semifinals match where Mumbai scored 353 runs to lead Tamil Nadu by 207 runs.
Tamil Nadu Batted first and scored only 146 runs in the first innings. Mumbai scored 45 runs by the end of day 01.
Starting from 45/2 Mumbai struggled to score runs amid the dismissal streak of Tamil Nadu Captain Sai Kishore who had a five-wicket haul with his slow left-arm bowling. He bagged more than 50 wickets in the season.
Bhupen Lalwani, Musherr Khan, Mohit Avasthi, Ajinkya Rahane, and Hardik Tamore fell to the bowling tactics of Kishore making Mumbai struggle with 106/7.
Shardul Thakur walked in and helped Mumbai with his impressive batting as he scored 13 fours and 4 sixes. He smashed a century in 89 deliveries.
He added 105 runs for the 8th wicket alongside Hardik Tamore and 79 runs for the ninth wicket with Tanush who remained unbeaten with 74 runs by the end of day 02.
He was dismissed by Kuldeep Sen after scoring 109 runs in the 86th over. Finally, Mumbai scored 378 runs losing all 10 wickets in the first innings of the match.
While speaking by the end of the day Shardul Thakur said, “I like these kinds of situations. When you play with passion, you wait for these moments,” said Thakur.
“When the team is down, you want to lift them up with your performance; you want to do something in the middle that changes the game.”
“We bogged down a bit in the first session. There was not too much happening today on the pitch, and I felt batsmen should have played with some kind of freedom.
At times, in big games, if you are scared, you tend to lose wickets. So, we might as well play with freedom. That was the idea when I started batting.”
“It’s surprising because when I started, Bombay used to send me at numbers 10 and 11. So, I had to work my way up.”
“I started batting at 8 when I played for India, and then only Bombay gave me an opportunity to bat at 8. Probably more hundreds will come, and it’s a big opening that you should promote all-rounders in Mumbai cricket,” he added.
Tamil Nadu started their second innings on day 03 with a trail of 232 runs at the time of writing at MCA Cricket Ground.
