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Following his second successive century for Uttar Pradesh in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, Indian batter Rinku Singh's first-class batting average is amongst the top 10 best of all time.
Rinku, who had scored a brilliant 112 in a win over Bihar in their campaign opener, continued to prove his status as a crisis manager for UP, scoring a fiery 118* in 186 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes. He came to the crease with his side at 33/3 and took them to 202. In UP's first innings, after they elected to bat first, Madhav Kaushik (45) produced the second-highest score and the only other score above 20 for UP, as Yash Kasvankar (5/86) took a five-wicket haul. Now in 55 first-class games and 78 innings, Rinku has scored 3,987 runs at an average of 61.33, with 11 centuries and 23 fifties. His best score is 176. Prior to this match, his batting average in first-class cricket was 59.52. He also surpassed Tanmay Shrivastava, India's U19 World Cup 2008 winner, for most centuries by a UP batter in first-class cricket, having 11 centuries now. Rinku's batting average in first-class cricket is the ninth-highest of all time among batters having played a minimum of 50 innings. Donald Bradman (95.14 in 338 innings) has the best first-class batting average of all time, with the Aussie icon miles ahead of his distant second, Vijay Merchant of India (71.64 in 234 innings). Ajay Sharma (67.46 in 166 innings), Shantanu Sugwekar (63.1 in 122 innings) and Sarfaraz Khan (62.92 in 95 innings) are other Indians in the top 10. Despite featuring in T20Is for India predominantly, Rinku has been on a hot run in first-class cricket, managing scores of 118*, 112, 60 and 20, 176, 165*, 68, 89, 6, 26 and 10 across his last 10 first-class matches. This makes it 850 runs in 11 innings at an average of 94.44, including four centuries and three fifties, with a best score of 176. (ANI)
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