Ranji Trophy: Under-19 star Musheer Khan scores unbeaten 203 for Mumbai vs Baroda

Khan ran out of partners but in Hardik Tamore, he found someone willing to grit it out while he did the heavy lifting. Tamore scored a patient 57 off 248 balls. Meanwhile, Khan, who resumed on 128, was never in any discomfort as he waited for loose balls to keep the scoreboard ticking. He swept any ball that came within his range and cut if the ball was even fractionally wide.

Musheer Khan, younger brother of #SarfarazKhan went on to score 200 for Mumbai against Baroda in Ranji Trophy quarterfinals. He took 350 balls to achieve this milestone. #Musheer #Ranji pic.twitter.com/oMAddpMJVp

— Devendra Pandey 🦋 (@pdevendra) February 24, 2024

“The feeling is surreal to bat after scoring 100 runs. When I was walking back to the dressing room, I realised how all my big runs have come from Baroda over the years,” Khan said. “I scored 258 against Baroda in under 14, in Under 16, I scored 250. And now this double hundred came against Baroda, too. The idea was to bat the whole day and try to rotate the strike. If the ball is in my reach, I will try to hit or just rotate strike.”

Khan and Tamore added an 181-run stand for the sixth wicket and it enabled Mumbai to recover after wickets early in the innings. The wicket-keeper batsman revealed the talks he had with Khan while batting.

“I was trying to hold one end and give Musheer a hand. He was backing his shots. I have played with Sarfaraz from under-14 days but this was a superb knock from him (Musheer),” Tamore said. “We were speaking to each other and said even if we didn’t get a run, we had to hang around as long as possible for the team. We wanted to bat till lunch and then decide further course of action.”

It was Tamore’s wicket which opened the door for Baroda to take control of the game. Tamore went for forward defense to left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt but was caught at slips.

Post lunch, it took just 16 overs for Baroda to dismiss Mumbai as the last four wickets could add only 40 runs. Veteran left-arm spinner Bhatt finished with seven wickets as he single handedly became the architect of Mumbai’s batting collapse.

In reply, Baroda counter-attacked Mumbai bowlers despite Mumbai getting an early breakthrough thanks to Shardul Thakur, who got opener Priyanshu Moliya. His opening partner Jyotsnil Singh and one-drop Shashwat Rawat gave the Mumbai bowlers a tough time.

At stumps, Baroda were 127 for 2 with Rawat and skipper Vishnu Solanki batting on 69 and 23 runs respectively.

Brief Scores: Mumbai 384 all out (Musheer Khan 203 not out, Hardik Tamore 57, Bhargav Bhatt 7 for 112) vs Baroda 127 for 2 (Jyotsnil Singh 32, S Rawat 69).