Ranji Trophy: Shreyas Gopal slams unbeaten century for Karnataka
All-rounder Shreyas Gopal slammed an unbeaten century for Karnataka against Uttarakhand in the 2022/23 Ranji Trophy quarter-final. The right-handed batter reached the three-figure mark on Day 2 of the all-important clash. Gopal, who also bowls leg spin, now has five centuries in First-Class cricket. In the process, he also raced to 3,000 runs in the format. Here are the key stats.
A special knock by Gopal
After bowling out Uttarakhand (116), Karnataka finished Day 1 on 123/0. Ravikumar Samarth and Mayank Agarwal returned unbeaten. Each of their top four batters registered 50+ scores, while Gopal came to the middle at 307/4. He completed a century stand with Manish Pandey before adding crucial runs with Sharath BR and K Gowtham. Gopal returned unbeaten on 161 (288) as Karnataka managed 606.
Gopal races past 3,000 FC runs
It was the fifth century of Gopal's First-Class career. He also has 13 half-centuries in the format. Gopal raced past 3,000 First-Class runs in what was his 75th appearance. Gopal's unbeaten 161 is now his best score in red-ball cricket. He has 702 and 459 runs in List A and T20 cricket, respectively. The wrist-spinner also has over 200 wickets in First-Class cricket.
A historic hat-trick in 2019
In the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL), Gopal took a historic hat-trick. He dismissed Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Marcus Stoinis to attain the feat. Gopal became only the third Indian after Amit Mishra and Yuvraj Singh to record multiple hat-tricks in T20s.
