Prithvi Shaw, who has been ignored by India across formats in the last 18 months, scored an unbeaten 240 as Mumbai posted 397 for two against Assam on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group B match here on Tuesday. Prithvi has shared an unbroken 200-run partnership for the third wicket with captain Ajinkya Rahane (73 not out). During his career-best innings, he faced 283 balls and hit 33 fours and a six. Prithvi has played 153 empty balls so far. Prithvi scored 76 off 76 balls against spinner Roshan Alam and 53 off 56 balls against Harideep Deka.
Earlier, Prithvi gave a good start to the team by adding 123 runs for the first wicket with Mushir Khan (42) and 74 runs for the second wicket with Armaan Jaffer (27). In contrast to Prithvi’s aggressive innings, Hanuma Vihari, another batsman in the process of making a comeback in Team India, played a slow knock of 76 not out off 202 balls as Andhra posted 203 for three against a weak Delhi bowling attack at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground. Young opener CR Dnyaneshwar also played an innings of 81 runs in 158 balls.
Off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen looked the most effective from Delhi. He took one wicket for 19 runs in 13 overs. In Hyderabad, Saurashtra took a massive lead by posting 250 for five after bowling out the hosts for 79, led by Jaydev Unadkat (3 for 28). For Saurashtra, Harvik Desai scored 81 while Chirag Jani scored 68 runs. Saurashtra have a lead of 171 runs with five wickets remaining. Aniket Reddy took three wickets for 74 runs for Hyderabad. Ruturaj Gaikwad (118 not out) scored a century and Azim Kazi (87 not out) and Kedar Jadhav (56) scored half-centuries to help Maharashtra post 350 for six against Tamil Nadu in another Group B match at Pune.
