2017-18 Ranji Trophy: 5 best performers from the first round

#3 Shubham Sharma

Shubham Sharma (left) walks back to the pavilion after the end of a session

In the previous slide, we saw how MP's first innings' total played a big role in earning them an easy victory. The chief architect of the win was batsman Shubham Sharma, who scored a valiant 196 off 394 to take his team to a strong position.

After being put into bat, MP were reduced to 69/4 in the first session when Shubham joined his skipper Davendra Bundela at the crease. Both the batsmen batted cautiously as they pulled things back on track for their team.

After reaching his fifty off 146 balls, Shubham started to bat more freely and kept finding the gaps in the field. He lost his captain off the last ball of day one for 99 after sharing a 199-run partnership with him.

That didn't stop the 23-year-old as he reached his century off 239 balls and still looked strong. With Ankit Sharma giving him support from the other end, Shubham kept scoring runs and looked set for a double century. It was then when Swapnil Singh had Shubham caught by Atit Sheth four runs short of his maiden first-class double century.

Shubham departed for 196 with the help of 23 fours and Ankit's century, along with some useful contributions from the tailenders, took their team to 551/8 when Bundela declared the innings.

This was enough for the hosts as they bundled out Baroda for 302 and 318 in both their innings and chased down 73 in the fourth innings to earn an eight-wicket win.