Swapnil Gugale-Ankit Bawne set Ranji Trophy record with 594-run partnership

Mumbai, Oct 14: Maharashtra's Swapnil Gugale and Ankit Bawne rewrote record books and came very close to erasing Sri Lankan legends Mahela Jayawardene-Kumar Sangakkara's world mark in the Ranji Trophy match here today (October 14).

Match scorecard

Captain and opener Gugale struck a magnificent unbeaten 351 (521 balls, 37x4, 5x6) and number 4 batsman Bawne remained undefeated on a superb 258 (500 balls, 18x4, 2x6) against Delhi on the second day of their Ranji Trophy contest here at the Wankhede Stadium.

Gugale, in his first match as skipper, hit his only 3rd ton in first-class cricket and Bawne with his 14th three-figure plus mark.

Right-handers Gugale and Bawne, 23, set a new Ranji Trophy partnership record with an unfinished association of 594 runs for the third wicket. This is the highest ever partnership for any wicket in the tournament's history (Previous best - 577 between Vijay Hazare (288) and Gul Mohammed (319) for Baroda Vs Holkar in 1947). Gugale-Bawne broke 69-year-old mark.

The duo could have carried on but the 25-year-old Gugale put team before personal milestones as he declared the innings at 635/2 in 173 overs.

The 2nd wicket had fallen at 41 in 8.1 overs. At stumps on first day yesterday (October 13), Gugale was batting on 152 and Bawne on 120. Maharashtra were 290/2 in 90 overs.

Highest partnerships in f-c cricket:
624 S'kkara/ J'wardene, 2006
594* S GUGALE/ A BAWANE, 2016
580 R Mohmand/ A Sajjad,2009#RanjiTrophy

— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) October 14, 2016

Both Gugale and Bawne registered their highest first-class scores. In his previous 17 games, Gugale's top score was 174 while Bawne's previous best was 172 in 61 matches.

The world record partnership for any wicket in first-class history belongs to the Sri Lankan pair of Jayawardene and Sangakkara with 624 runs (Scorecard) against South Africa in Colombo in 2006. Gugale and Bawne missed the mark by 30 runs.

In that historic Test, Sangakkara scored 287 and skipper Jayawardene hit 374 as Sri Lanka won by an innings and 153 runs.

Brief Scores (At the end of Day 2)

Maharashtra 635/2 in 173 overs declared (Swapnil Gugale 351 not out, Ankit Bawne 258 not out, Navdeep Saini 2/44) Vs Delhi 21/0 in 5 overs

Oh no! Maharashtra (Gugale) has declared!
Swapnil Gugale & Ankit Bawne partnership now 594*
30 runs short of the WORLD RECORD!#RanjiTrophy

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 14, 2016

Maharashtra's Swapnil Gugale now 350* vs Delhi at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai 7th batsman in #RanjiTrophy history to reach 350+

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 14, 2016

The world record stand for any wicket is 624 btw K Sangakkara & M Jayawardene for SL v SA in 2006
Swapnil Gugale & Ankit Bawne - now 583*

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 14, 2016

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