World records tumble in U-16 school match.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
Pranav Dhanawade, a 15-year-old school cricketer from Mumbai created history on Tuesday by becoming the first ever batsman to score 1000-plus runs in an innings in any form of cricket.
Opening the batting for KC Gandhi School, Kalyan, Dhanawade scored an unbeaten 1009 off 323 balls (395 minutes) at a strike-rate of 312.38 against Arya Gurukul school in a Bhandari Cup match. His team soon declared the innings at 1465.
In his ebullient innings, Dhanawade smashed 59 sixes and 129 fours. Dhanawade was unbeaten on 652 on Monday, which is also the record for most runs scored in a single day of a multi-day match.
When he reached 629, the budding Indian cricketer broke an 116-old cricketing record for highest individual score in any form of representative cricket by English cricketer AEJ Collins.
Collins had scored an unbeaten 628 for Clark House against North Town House in the UK in 1899.
The under-16 inter-school cricket tournament was organized by the Mumbai Cricket Association mainly for the benefit of suburban schools.
Dhanawade’s epic innings was seen by his father — Prashant — an autorickshaw driver in Mumbai.
“I want my son to become a great cricketer. He has proved that he has the talent today. Cricket is not an easy sport and expensive too. I spent extra hours driving an autorickshaw in order to afford the cricket gear for my son,” Prashant told The Indian Express.
“I have always been a big-hitter,” Dhanawade told The Hindustan Times on Monday.
“When I started I never thought about breaking the record. The focus was never that. I just played my natural game, which is to attack from the word go. After reaching 300, my coach Harish Sharma told me to play on. I did not know of the world record, but we had the Indian record in mind,” he added.
According to DNA, Maharashtra education minister Vinod Tawde has announced that the state government would cover all costs of Pranav Dhanawade’s cricket coaching.
The Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation has also congratulated and hailed Dhanawade.
Previously, Prithvi Shaw of Rizvi School in Mumbai held the record for the highest score by an Indian batsman in minor cricket when he hit 546 for Rizvi Springfield against St Francis in the Harris Shield in 2013-14.