Sarfaraz Khan has been on a thunderous run-scoring spree in the Ranji Trophy, one which is now unlikely to be ignored by the selectors.
On Thursday, in the all-important 2022 Ranji Trophy finale, the Mumbai batter brought up his fourth century of the season in his 8th innings. This knock by Sarfaraz – 134 off 243 balls, a strike rate of 55 – which included 13 fours and 2 sixes, helped Mumbai put up a first-innings total of 374 which looked distant when they had slipped to 248/6 by the morning of Day 2 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.
Sarfaraz Khan’s emotional celebration; performs Moosewala’s famous step
Sarfaraz Khan got really emotional upon reaching his century, slamming Kumar Kartikeya’s full and flighted delivery down the ground for a boundary. First, the helmet came out promptly before he pumped the air with his bat and his energy was palpable.
Khan even looked to have shed a tear or more before raising his arms up in the air acknowledging the praise from his Mumbai teammates and the few-hundred crowd applauding in the stands.
Finally, the 24-year-old performed the Sidhu Moosewala’s signature step, ‘Thappi’ as a tribute to the iconic Punjabi singer who was recently murdered by some goons.
You can watch Sarfaraz Khan’s teary-eyed celebration in the Ranji Final here:
The celebration from Sarfaraz Khan is an absolute pleasure to watch. pic.twitter.com/QamNJ5Ua7g
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) June 23, 2022
Sarfaraz is, by miles, the leading run-scorer this season with 937 runs in 8 innings at a staggering average of 133, and has notched up four centuries and couple of fifties.
The right-hander scored 275 runs against Saurashtra, 153 against Uttarakhand in the quarter-final, 165 against Odisha before thumping another century in the final.
With this, Sarfaraz also surpassed his own run tally from the 2019/20 Ranji Trophy season when he ransacked 928 runs in 9 innings – including his career-best of 301* – at an astonishing average of 154!
