Irani Cup: Sarfaraz smashes double-ton

Lucknow, Oct 2: The legend of Sarfaraz Khan as a domestic doyen is growing from strength to strength as his authoritative double hundred for Mumbai not only put the Rest of India under immediate pressure in the ongoing Irani Cup but will also keep the seasoned KL Rahul on toes when the Indian team embarks on the Test tour of Australia next month.

Sarfaraz (221 batting, 276 balls) became the first-ever cricketer to score an Irani Cup double hundred for Mumbai, with the 42-time champions reaching 536 for 9 at the end of the second day.

Wasim Jaffer (Vidarbha), Ravi Shastri, Praveen Amre and Yashasvi Jaiswal (all for Rest of India) are double centurions in the Irani Cup.

It has been a tough week for Sarfaraz as his younger brother Musheer, who was also supposed to play the game, was ruled out of competitive cricket for 16 weeks after a road accident. If his brother and father Naushad's car accident had perturbed him, it didn't seem so in his batting as he went hammer and tongs at the Rest of India bowling attack.

He played 160 dot balls but still maintained a 80 percent strike-rate, largely due to his 25 boundaries and four sixes.

Skipper Ajinkya Rahane (97 off 234 balls) missed out on a 40th first-class hundred but the second day belonged to Sarfaraz, who was in a mood to punish pacers and spinners alike. His 15th first-class century will certainly dispel all doubts about his slot as reserve middle-order batter for the remainder of the Test season (8 games).

Rahul, who got back his middle-order slot from Sarfaraz, did well in Kanpur but the team management and even the Karnataka batter knows that the stockily built Mumbaikar is breathing down his neck.