Shreyas Iyer smashes third-fastest double century in Ranji Trophy history

Mumbai youngster Shreyas Iyer smashed his maiden First-Class double century in 175 balls against Punjab on October 9, 2015. His knock features among the fastest 200s in Ranji Trophy as well as the fastest among Indians in First-Class cricket, as listed by Bharath Seervi.

The 20-year old Shreyas Iyer, awarded the Emerging Player of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 playing for Delhi Daredevils, had a good debut Ranji Trophy season in 2014-15. He has also started 2015-16 with a bang. He scored his maiden double-century against Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium on October 9 in the second match of Ranji Trophy 2015-16. Shreyas reached his 200 in 175 balls with 25 fours and 5 sixes but was out next ball. READ: Shreyas Iyer scores belligerent double-ton for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 clash against Punjab

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Shreyas’ innings is the second fastest in the tournament’s 82-year history. The only ones quicker to him were Ravi Shastri (123 balls vs Baroda, 1984-85) and Rajesh Borah (156 balls vs Assam, 1991-92). The 123-ball 200 by Shastri is the fastest double-century in First-Class cricket history. The table below lists the fastest double-centuries in Ranji Trophy.

Fastest 200s in Ranji Trophy (within 200 balls)

–    Shastri did it in the third innings of the match.

–    Rohit Sharma and Kedar Jadhav went on to score triple-centuries.

–    Four Mumbai batsmen feature in the list and all did at the Wankhede Stadium.

Considering overall First-Class cricket, Shreyas’ 175-ball 200 is the fourth-fastest double century by an Indian. Virender Sehwag scored a 168-ball double century in a Test against Sri Lanka at Brabourne Stadium during his 254-ball 293 in 2009-10.
The table below lists the other quick double centuries by Indians in First-Class cricket outside Ranji Trophy:

Fastest 200s by Indians in First-Class cricket outside Ranji Trophy (within 200 balls)

–    Sehwag appears thrice in this list. All his 200s came in Tests.

–    Yusuf Pathan’s 210* off 190 balls was in the fourth innings of the Duleep Trophy final of 2009-10 chasing a record target of 536. West Zone successfully chased it with 3 wickets in hand.

–    Yusuf scored a century in the first innings as well. The opposition skipper Dinesh Karthik scored 150s (183 and 150) in each innings but ended up losing the match.

–    Manish Pandey’s knock was in the semi-final of Duleep Trophy 2010-11.

–    Yuvraj Singh’s knock came in the third innings of the match.

–    It was Sachin Tendulkar’s maiden double century in First-Class career against the visiting Australians in a practice match. He was eventually the Man of the Series in the three-Test series played in that tour scoring 446 runs in 5 innings with two centuries and a half-century.

Shreyas made his Ranji Trophy debut last season for Mumbai and ended up as the highest run-getter for his side in the season aggregating 809 runs in 17 innings at 50.56 with 2 centuries and 6 half-centuries. He was overall the seventh highest run-getter of the season but scored 8 scores in excess of 50 — the most by any one. He looks promising and has started the season on a good note.

Bonus Trivia

Sehwag has scored 3 double centuries within 200 balls in First-Class cricket, all coming in Tests. Where balls are recorded, he is the only batsman to score three 200s in less than 200 balls in First-Class cricket. Graeme Hick, Kevin Pietersen and Graham Lloyd have scored two such 200s.

(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SeerviBharath and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeerviCricket)