Deodhar Trophy 2023: Mayank Agarwal clocks 19th List A fifty
Mayank Agarwal hammered a splendid fifty against North Zone in their 2023 Deodhar Trophy opener in Puducherry. The South Zone captain slammed his 19th half-century in List A cricket. His 68-ball 64 gave SZone a fine start and allowed the middle-order batters to explode. Eventually, SZone posted a total of 303/8. Agarwal's knock was laced with seven boundaries. Here's more.
A calculative hand from the experienced Agarwal
Agarwal played a captain's knock as he complimented his fellow opening partner Rohan Kunnummal, who took the aggressive route. Both the batters registered fifties, as they stitched a 117-run opening partnership. Later, he added 35 runs with Devdutt Padikkal, taking SZone's target beyond the 150-run mark. Following Padikkal's dismissal, Agarwal tried playing his shots but was dismissed soon after by Mayank Markande.
A look at his List A numbers
Agarwal's assuring knock of 64 allowed him to race to 4,360 runs in 99 List A matches. The experienced opening batter maintains an impressive average in excess of 45. His tally in List A cricket includes 19 fifties and 13 centuries, proving his amazing conversion rate. The 32-year-old also boasts a decent strike rate of around 99.
His numbers in the 2022 Vijay Hazare Trophy
Agarwal did not enjoy the best outing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy last season. The veteran slammed 211 runs in nine matches at an average of 26.37. He smoked three fifties as his state team Karnataka reached the semi-finals.
Agarwal had a fantastic Duleep Trophy
The veteran had a great Duleep Trophy for South Zone as he finished the tournament with 193 runs from two matches at an average of 48.25. Although he didn't get a mammoth score, he gave SZone good starts and finished as the third-highest run-getter of the tournament. Agarwal slammed fifties in both innings against NZone in the semi-finals. SZone clinched the 2023 Duleep Trophy.
Summary of South Zone's innings
SZone won the toss and elected to bat first and were off to a flying start. Both openers Kunnummal and Agarwal slammed fifties and stitched a 117-run stand. Narayan Jagadeesan played a great knock of 72 runs off 66 balls along with cameos from Ricky Bhui and Arun Karthik, which helped SZone post 303/8. NZone's Markande and Rishi Dhawan scalped two wickets each.
