Pranav Dhanawade of KC Gandhi School has scored 1009* in 323 balls against Arya Gurukul School, a feat never before achieved in any form of cricket’s illustrious history. His team declared their innings on 1465, another world record. The opposition team had been dismissed for 31 yesterday.
Pranav's knock consisted of 59 sixes and 129 fours, played at a strike rate of 312.38.
As the world woke up to a lazy winter Tuesday, Pranav Dhanawade resumed batting from his already world record score of 652*, aiming to reach the unprecedented 4-figure mark, never before breached in any form of recognised cricket.
As the day wore on news filtered in that this record holder, who was batting in the ‘nervous 900s’, bought his cricket gear with the money his father managed to earn by working extra hours driving his auto rickshaw in Kalyan. The Maharashtra government announced their decision to bear all coaching and education expenditures of the 15-year-old.
The superhuman knock, the like of which has not been witnessed in any stadium in any part of the world till date, will belong in the annals of cricket as being played in the HT Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association.
Carrying on from his blitzkrieg on Monday, Pranav gave the bowlers no respite on Tuesday, reaching 921* at lunch.
He had earlier beat the score of 628 not out by AEJ Collins in a school match at Clifton College in 1899 as the highest recorded individual score in organised cricket anywhere in the world. Ironically, Collins had never played any first class cricket, and had been killed in the first World War.
Dhanawade became the fourth Indian to score 500 or more runs in a single innings after DR Havewalla (515 for Central India Railways, Bombay against St Xavier’s, Baroda in 1953), Chaman Lal (502 not out for Mahendra College, Patiala against Government College, Rupar in 1956-57) and Prithvi Shaw (546 for Rizvi Springfield against Francis D’Assisi in a Harris Shield game in 2013-14).
Pranav had said before resuming his knock on Tuesday, “I did not know of the world record, but we had the Indian record [Shaw's 546] in mind."
“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,” his father had told Sportskeeda earlier. He had said his son’s dream was to be selected for the Mumbai U-16 team.
A call-up to the Mumbai U-16 team is sure for Pranav now, but considering the scale of his achievement in this ancient sport, even greater things surely beckon.
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