Ranji Trophy | Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawane: 2 men, 594 runs

Maharashtra's Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawane scripted their names in the record books by stitching together the highest-ever partnership of any wicket in Ranji Trophy cricket: a jaw-dropping, unbeaten stand of 594 against Delhi on the second day of their Group B match at the Wankhede here on Friday.

The duo surpassed the previous record of 577, which Baroda's Vijay Hazare and Gul Mohammed added for the fourth wicket against Holkar in 1946-47. This was also the second-highest partnership in first-class cricket, behind only Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, who put on a massive 624 runs against South Africa in a Test in Colombo in 2006.

Maharashtra declared their innings at 635/2 after batting out 173 overs. Gugale, who opened the innings, remained unbeaten on 351 off 521 balls with 37 fours and five sixes, while No. 4 batsman Bawne walked back without being dismissed on 258 off 500 balls, and had 18 fours and two maximums against his name.

The two came together as early as in the ninth over of the game when Maharashtra were in a spot of bother at 41/2. From then began a marathon effort from the two, making the Delhi bowlers toil hard to get that priced wicket.

"The Delhi bowlers asked us, 'aren't you getting bored? We are getting bored bowling to you, why aren't you getting bored while batting?' I said, 'can one ever get bored of batting'?" Bawne told reporters after the days' play.

One couldn't help but feel bad for the opposition bowlers. Delhi captain Unmukt Chand used as many as nine bowlers to get rid of the two. It didn't help that their fielders put down catches. Gugale, who was dropped on 38 and 105 on Thursday, was lucky one again on the second day, thanks to Varun Sood spilling a catch when the batsman was on 262.

The two resumed the innings at the overnight score of 290/2, when the 25-year-old Gugale was on 152 and 23-year-old Bawane on 120.

"We had a plan of scoring around 620-odd runs and then declaring," Gugale said. Records were not in our mind. We were not aware of anything, it was only later when I came inside. That time I got to know so many records were broken."

The Wankhede deck was ideal for the two to carry on, for it was as flat as a national highway. Both batsmen sensed that, and realised that such an opportunity would rarely come again. No wonder they kept pushing each other.

"There were times when I was not able to run singles," Gugale said. "He (Bawane) said we have to focus and make the score bigger. Yesterday (Thursday), we were pushing each other that we have to not stop because a situation like this might not come again, and if we back each other then we can make history. That's what he said.

"We were telling each other, 'let's make it happen, let's make it happen, don't focus focus'. If I or he played a wrong shot, we were making each other aware of that and asking each other to be patient," Gugale added.

Brief scores: Maharashtra (o/n 290/2) 635/2 in 173 overs (S Gugale 351*, A Bawne 258*) vs Delhi 21/0 in five overs

N ZONE

594*
No. of runs put together by Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawane, the highest partnership in Ranji Trophy history, surpassing the 577 by Baroda's Vijay Hazare and Gul Mohammed against Holkar in 1946-47

30
No. of runs by which the two Maharashtra batsman fell short of the world record. Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene hold the record for the highest stand in first-class cricket (624 against SA in a Test in Colombo in 2006)

Herwadkar slams ton as Mumbai take control

Akhil Herwadkar struck a solid hundred to help Mumbai take the first innings lead against Baroda on the second day of the Group A match in New Delhi. Baroda were all out for 305 after resuming the day at 286/9. In reply, Mumbai were 313/8 at stumps, thanks to Herwadkar's 106 off 216 balls. The other contributions came from Suryakumar Yadav (54) and Balwinder Sandhu, who remained unbeaten on 56. Brief scores: Baroda (o/n 286/9) 305 all out in 86.1 overs vs Mumbai 313/8 in 88 overs (A Herwadkar 106, B Sandhu 56*, S Yadav 54; S Mangalokar 3/74)

ELSEWHERE

GROUP A

IN JAIPUR: Bengal (o/n 288/3) 466 all out in 139.2 overs (A Easwaran 142, M Tiwari 110; K Yadav 5/115, A Rajpoot 4/119) vs Uttar Pradesh 126/3 in 35 overs (U Sharma 57*, S Khan 43*)

IN ROHTAK: Punjab (o/n 347/3) 378 all out in 108.2 overs (Y Singh 177, G Mann 103; I Pandey 8/102) vs Madhya Pradesh 182/5 in 62 overs (S Sharma 48*; M Gony 4/25)

IN BILASPUR: Tamil Nadu 121 & 161/1 in 60 overs (A Mukund 98*, K Gandhi 41*) vs Railways 173 all out in 64 overs (M Devdhar 47, A Ghosh 46; T Natarajan 4/51)

GROUP B

IN VIZAG: Assam (o/n 195 all out) vs Rajasthan 208/3 (M Lomror 84*, A Menaria 44)

IN NOIDA: Karnataka (o/n 248/3) 577/6 decl in 172 overs (R Samartha 235, S Binny 97, K Nair 74, M Abbas 55; A Kumar 3/78) vs Jharkhand 9/0 in five overs

IN HYDERABAD: Odisha 228 & 62/2 in 23 overs vs Saurashtra 186 all out in 67.33 overs (J Shah 64, C Jani 45; B Mohanty 4/58, S Pradhan 3/37, 3/47 D Singh)

GROUP C

IN KALYANI: Chhatisgarh (o/n 261/4) 394 all out in 126.4 overs (A Khare 143, A Chauhan 123; D Kumar 4/61) vs Andhra 151/5 in 49 overs (D Prasanth 62)

IN SURAT: Jammu & Kashmir 227 & 261 all out in 61.3 overs (P Bisht 87, I Singh 64, S Khajuria 48; A Pandrekar 3/39, A Yadav 3/70) vs Goa (o/n 43/5) 77 all out in 30.5 overs (R Dayal 4/15, U Nazir 3/10) & 22/0 in ten overs

IN JAMSHEDPUR: Hyderabad (o/n 191 all out) vs Haryana 236/4 in 95 overs (N Saini 61, S Rohilla 60, C Bishnoi 47)

IN KOLKATA: Kerala (o/n 163/4) 248 all out in 107.1 overs (S Baby 61, S Samson 47; R Dhawan 4/66) vs Himachal Pradesh 198/8 in 56 overs (P Chopra 60; J Saxena 5/53

IN GUWHATI: Tripura (o/n 228/7) 275 all out in 91.4 overs (B Ghosh 49, Y Singh 41; M Khalid 4/61, D Pathania 3/71) vs Services 202/9 in 74 overs (S Yadav 71*; R Dutta 3/36)

STAR WATCH

Yuvraj Singh 177 (Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh)