Ajinkya Rahane shines on county debut, scores a century for Hampshire

Ajinkya Rahane sparkled on debut as he blasted a century in the second innings during the English County game between Hampshire and Nottinghamshire in the First Division of the English Domestic competition. Rahane, who had managed to score just 10 runs in the first innings,  struck a patient 119 off 260 balls, hit 14 boundaries and shared a 257-run stand for the third wicket with Sam Northeast, who was unbeaten on 131 at tea on the third day. Rahane became the third player after Piyush Chawla and Murali Vijay to score a century on debut. Chawla achieved the feat for Sussex against Worcestershire while Vijay did it for Essex against Nottinghamshire.

Rahane came in at No 3 in the fifth over of the innings and was dismissed by off-spinner Matthew Carter at the stroke of tea in the 70th over. In between, he saw off England seamer Stuart Broad's testing first spell and showed a lot of patience waiting for the loose deliveries at the Newport ground. In fact, Rahane reached his hundred with a cover drives off Carter that fetched him two runs. The celebration was muted. This was his 30th first-class hundred.        

RELATED       

Apart from Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin will also be playing in the Division One of the Championship for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire respectively. The BCCI wants the Test specialists to have enough game time before they embark on a tour of West Indies, where they will play two Tests as a part of World Test Championship.

The Indian cricket team arrived in London yesterday for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 and Virat Kohli’s side will play two warm-up games against New Zealand and Bangladesh. India will begin their ICC Cricket World Cup campaign against South Africa at The Oval on June 5 but all eyes will be on the India vs Pakistan encounter on June 16 in Manchester.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ajinkya Rahane scored a century on debut in England County cricket.
• Cheteshwar Pujara and Piyush Chawla scored a century on debut as well.
• India will embark on a tour of the West Indies after the ICC Cricket World Cup.