Top 5 innings by Shikhar Dhawan

#2 248 (150) vs South Africa A, August 12, 2013

Occasion: First innings, 6th match, India A's tour of South Africa at Pretoria, August 12, 2013.

This is also the second highest score in List-A/International cricket, coming behind Rohit Sharma's 264 against Sri Lanka.

After the success in his early Test matches and a moderate showing in IPL 2013, Shikhar was included in the India A squad set to tour South Africa for a set of limited over games in a tri-series that also included Australia A. It was a List-A game only by name, as Team India featured the likes of Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik and so on, while South Africa did not hold themselves back either, with Reesa Hendricks, Rilee Rossouw, Dean Elgar, van der Merwe and so on turning up for them as well.

Dhawan had scores of 15 and 85 from two games prior to this, in the series. He was also rested in one game. But all that was history in a few hours, with Dhawan smashing 30 fours and 7 sixes to his 150-ball-248. He not only crossed double hundred but also came to the point where he was just two runs shy for a 250. Thanks to him, Vijay (40) and Pujara (109), India A made 433 runs in 50 overs.

In reply, South Africa scored 394 runs and lost by 39 runs. Had it been any other game, victory would have been theirs. It was Dhawan's lone innings that kept the Indian target at such a high spot, making it impossible for the hosts to reach it. The innings he played also became the fastest List-A double hundred and the highest List-A/International ODI innings, before Rohit Sharma bettered it a year later.

India eventually won the tri-series, Dhawan's 65 runs helping them overcome Australia-A by 50 runs, in the final.