Prithvi Shaw rattled up the third-quickest double-century in Ranji Trophy history on Monday, giving Maharashtra room to chase an outright win over Chandigarh. The opener’s 222 came from just 141 deliveries – only Tanmay Agarwal (119 balls in 2024-25) and Ravi Shastri (123 balls in 1984-85) have got there faster – and it was his first hundred for his new state side, 14th in first-class cricket overall.
Maharashtra declared their second innings at 359 for 3, scoring at 6.9 an over. Chandigarh closed the penultimate day on a steady 129 for 1, still 335 adrift.
The bare numbers are striking enough: 29 fours, five sixes, scarcely any let-up. Yet the context matters too. Shaw arrived in Pune last month after a bruising 2024-25 campaign in Mumbai colours, where questions over fitness and discipline coincided with an IPL auction in which no franchise raised a paddle. Maharashtra offered a fresh start; he has begun to take it.
A four-ball duck on debut against Kerala was followed by a brisk 75 in the second innings of that match. In Chandigarh he managed only 8 first time round, then exploded.
“I mean, these two-three months [before the season] I had my trainer [working with me],” he said during the Buchi Babu pre-season tournament, where he also reached three figures. “He used to come personally to train me. And I’ve got a dietitian as well … So, all this stuff in three-four months has really changed me physically and mentally as well. And, you know, it can be seen on the field.”
Shaw has found the dressing-room move painless, helped by familiar faces. “Mumbai is not that far away from Maharashtra,” he noted. “I mean, half of the team I know. I mean, obviously, I’ve played with Rutu, [and] Ankit; Mukesh is there … They have been really nice and welcoming to me.”
Captain Ankit Bawne had a simple view of Monday’s assault: “When Prithvi is set, the only tactic is to give him as much strike as possible.” The opener obliged, raising his hundred in 80 balls and his double in another 61.
Shastri’s 1985 effort, memorable for six sixes off Tilak Raj, and Agarwal’s boundary-laden dash against Arunachal sit above Shaw in the record book, but the latest entry arrived on a pitch offering early seam movement, making it a touch more demanding than the raw numbers suggest.
The national door is not exactly ajar yet. Abhimanyu Easwaran remains out of favour, while Devdutt Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad are batting in the middle order these days. Shaw’s task is to keep scoring and keep fit; India’s selectors will notice soon enough if he does both.
For now, Maharashtra need seven wickets and time to prise out Chandigarh on the final day. Given the way Shaw dismantled the attack, they will feel any target is within their bowlers’ reach – provided the weather behaves and the pitch does not flatten further overnight.
Shaw has done his part. The rest is up to a bowling unit that, so far this season, has blown hot and cold.
