Mumbai, Feb 27 (IANS): Mumbai all-rounders Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande on Tuesday stitched the second-highest tenth-wicket partnership in the Ranji Trophy history during the quarterfinal match against Baroda at the BKC Ground, here.
Udupi-origin Tanush Kotian and Deshpande combined to accumulate 232 runs for the 10th wicket, falling just short by one run of the 233-run record set by Ajay Sharma and Maninder Singh for Delhi against Mumbai during the 1991-92 season.
Teaming up for the last wicket in Mumbai’s second innings at 337/9 overnight score, Kotian reached his century in 115 deliveries by scoring a single, whereas Deshpande also reached the milestone with a remarkable century off 112 balls, marking him as Mumbai's first number 11 centurion.
Additionally, this duo became only the second pair to achieve First-Class centuries batting at No. 10 and No. 11 in the same innings. Chandu Sarwate and Shute Banerjee, were the first pair to achieve the feat in 1946 during Surrey v Indians match at the Oval.
Deshpande's innings came to an end for a well-made 123 off Ninad Rathva as Mumbai posted a mammoth 569 runs on board, setting a daunting target of 606 runs for Baroda.
Born to Karunakar and Mallika Kotian who are from Pangala in Udupi, Tanush has been born and brought up in Chembur in Mumbai. He did is schooling from Class 1 to 7 at St Joseph School, Vikhroli and Class 8 to 10 at V N Sule Guruji English Medium School. He pursued his secondary school and college at Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College.
A self-made cricketer, Tanush never had any godfather or coach to bring his best on the field. A young Tanush watched others playing cricket which attracted him to the game.