Jacob makes history

VADODARA, March 16: The smile that flashed across his countenance and his laconic at last'' betrayed his relief. For, Jacob Martin had ...

VADODARA, March 16: The smile that flashed across his countenance and his laconic 8220;at last8221; betrayed his relief. For, Jacob Martin had waited for four innings across two Ranji Trophy Super League matches and a fortnight too long to score the 15 runs he needed to surpass Raman Lamba8217;s Ranji Trophy record of 1034 runs in one season.

And he did it on Tuesday at the IPCL ground, savagely pulling Hyderabad8217;s off-spinner Kanwaljeet Singh to the fence, in the Super League match8217;s second innings despite his doctor advising him not to play because of a twisted knee in the first innings. It was reason enough to smile.

That report on the mid-wicket fence echoed a new national record of 1037 Ranji Trophy runs in a single season. 8220;My doctor asked me not to play, and indeed I could hardly move my legs, but it was my last chance to get the record, and I8217;m happy,8221; said the self-effacing Martin, scarcely able to hide his joy.

Vadodara8217;s Ranji campaign ended with the match as they failed to qualify for the knockouts.

Martin, who was in the 30 World Cup probables but narrowly missed out on being included in the list as it was pruned to 19, is closely followed by Karnataka8217;s Vijay Bharadwaj who has scored 1022 runs this season and still has the Ranji semifinals, and possibly the finals, remaining.

That8217;s not to run down Martin8217;s achievement. His record is even better than Lamba8217;s. He got it in 8 matches and 13 innings at an average of 103.7 while Lamba made his 1034 runs in 10 matches and 14 innings at an average of 73.86.

Of Martin8217;s 1037 runs, 540 were scored in the League phase and 479 in the Super League phase with five centuries which itself is a record he jointly holds with Ajay Sharma, H H Kanitkar and Rusi Modi, the highest being 242 against West Bengal at Calcutta8217;s Salt Lake Stadium in the Super League match.

Story continues below this ad

Martin made his Ranji debut in 1992-93 against Gujarat incidentally the last match of Anshuman Gaekwad at the Motibaug ground here as an all-rounder. He claimed with his leg-spin seven wickets in the match and scored 52 runs. The last three seasons, in which he was promoted to number four, have been his most productive ones. In the last season, Martin had broken the record of three consecutive centuries for Vadodara held by Nayan Mongia by getting four on the trot.