It is not often that a No 11 batsman gets a hundred in first class cricket. And in 67 years of the Ranji Trophy competition, no player going in last had reached the three figure mark - until Sunday. The record score had been held by S Mubarak Ali who scored 90 for Nawanagar against Bengal way back in 1936-37. In the process, he and Yadvendrasinhji added 138 runs, a record in the national competition that stood for 47 years. On Sunday, at the picturesque IIT-Chemplast ground in Chennai, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan created Ranji history by scoring 115 in the Ranji Trophy pre quarterfinal against Delhi.

At the fall of the ninth wicket, Vidyut, the junior India left-arm spinner, walked out to join the young MR Shrinivas. Delhi captain Vijay Dahiya persisted with spin to get the last wicket. What followed was history. The left handed Vidyut made 115 off just 122 balls, striking 17 boundaries and three huge sixes out of the ground. In one over from Virendra Shewag, he smashed three fours and a six, as the Delhi players hung their heads in disbelief. By the time the fast bowlers were called in to the attack, Vidyut was in full flow, pulling and hooking the short stuff bowled at him. He got to his hundred with a hook shot to long leg, where Amit Suman dropped the easy catch to give away two runs.

While Vidyut had his moment of glory, the unsung hero at the other end was Shrinivas who played with a lot of responsibility to make an unbeaten 42 off 141 balls with four strokes past the ropes. It was his assuring knock that helped Vidyut to go on the rampage. By the time, the reliable Delhi seamer, Robin Singh Jr, bowled Vidyut, the two batsmen had added 158 runs for the last wicket to take Tamil Nadu to an imposing 592 runs. The only higher last wicket stand in the national competition is 233 between Ajay Sharma and Maninder Singh for Delhi against Bombay in 1991-92.

List of Centuries by No. 11 batsmen

106*    TJ Hastings         Victoria v South Australia  Melbourne    1902-1903
112*    A Fielder           Kent v Worcestershire       Stourbridge  1909
126     WC Smith            MCC v Barbados              Bridgetown   1912-1913
101     AER Gilligan        Cambridge Univ v Sussex     Hove         1919
100*    Ahsan-ul-Haq        Muslims v Sikhs             Lahore       1923-1924
121     SN Banerjee         India v Surrey              The Oval     1946
163     TPB Smith           Essex v Derbyshire          Chesterfield 1947
109*    Maqsood Kundi       Muslim Com Bank v Nat Bank  Karachi      1981-1982
115*    GB Stevenson        Yorkshire v Warwickshire    Birmingham   1982
115     S Vidyut            Tamil Nadu v Delhi          Chennai      2000-2001

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