Achievement: Dinesh Karthik into his 100th Ranji Trophy match

Visakhapatnam: Dinesh Karthik reached a milestone of his illustrious 14-year long cricketing career when he stepped into the ground at Visakhapatnam to play his 100th Ranji Trophy match representing Tamil Nadu in the quarterfinal against Karnataka on Friday.

The diminutive wicket keeper-batsman had made his Ranji debut at a raw age of 16 in the match against Baroda. Since the, he has had many ups and downs being in and out of Indian team while always being on the verge of recall which, of course, did not happen. '' You never know if I get another national recall when nobody is expecting,'' he said before his 100th match.

It was rather smooth transition for him as far his inclusion in the Indian test side is concerned as he debuted against Australia in 2004 as a teenager within two years he made his Ranji debut. He could not consolidate his position in the team as Mahendra Singh Dhoni had always been at the helm of affairs.

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A stroke player with almost all the shots in his repertoire, Karthik went on to play 21 Test matches, 79 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and nine T20 matches for India. He aggregated 1000 runs in Test with one century and seven half centuries with not-so-good average of 27.77 having played his last Test in January 2010 against Bangladesh at Chittgaon. His ODI career, however, was extended one as he participated in his last ODI in 2014 against Afghanistan at Dhaka in Asia cup when he had scored 21 not out.

Dinesh Karthik, however, had a consistent first class career with 151 matches and an aggregate of 8806 runs with 25 centuries and 40 half centuries. His current Ranji season has also been good with one knock of 163 runs against Railways apart from six knocks of over fifty.

Overall, Karthik has an impressive tally of 34 first class centuries and 97 half centuries.

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