Pranav Dhanawade: 1009 not out

It’s not often that a batsman posts an individual score of 1000 runs, except say in book cricket or a video game, with the best of cheat codes on. But 15-year-old Pranav Dhanawade achieved the impossible, rewriting century-old cricket records with his feat on Tuesday at the Union Cricket Academy ground in Kalyan.

Representing Smt. KC Gandhi School from the Mumbai suburb of Kalyan in the HT Bhandari Cup, Dhanawade scored the first-ever individual 1000 in any class of cricket. The two-day inter-school tournament is organized by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). Dhanawade’s performance came against another school from Kalyan, Arya Gurukul School.

Dhanawade, the opening batsman for his school, posted an unbeaten 652 runs off 199 balls on Monday, with 78 fours and 30 sixes to his name. On Tuesday, he reached the four-figure mark in around 320 balls, before his side declared with a team score of 1465/3. Dhanawade was unbeaten on 921 when lunch was taken.

“My highest score this season was 80 which I scored against Thane’s Sri Ma Vidyalaya in my last match so I just wanted to cross the three-figure mark. I was not thinking about any record. As the toe-end of my bat had a crack, I tried to middle the ball and hit it towards the boundary,” Dhanawade was cited as saying by Mumbai-based newspaper Mid-Day.

The report cited Dhanawade as saying that on Monday, he was dropped when he had passed 200 and 350.

“I was tired and lost concentration on a few occasions. After my second chance, I changed my bat. My teammates gave me glucose water and urged me to carry on,” Dhanawade told Mid-Day.

The son of an autorickshaw driver, Dhanawade finished with an unbeaten individual score of 1009*, which came off 323 balls, with 59 sixes and 129 fours. His score eclipses AEJ Collins’ 628* for Clark’s House against North Town in Clifton College in 1899, which until Monday stood as the highest individual score in any form of representative cricket. Interestingly, Collins was younger by two years and achieved his feat in an inter-house match.

“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,” his father, Prashant, was cited as saying in The Indian Express. He added that it would be “a dream come true if his son plays for the Mumbai Under-16 team.”

Mumbai’s maidans have been home to several records in school cricket, predominantly by batsmen. Prithvi Shaw, the Mumbai under-19 opener, made 546 runs off 330 balls in a single day in the Harris Shield at the Azad Maidan in 2013. Dhanawade broke his record en route the 1,000 runs he scored. Similarly, India Under-19 cricketer Sarfaraz Khan made headlines in 2009, when he scored 439 in a Harris Shield match. Sarfaraz was 12 at the time. Armaan Jaffer, nephew of former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer was in the limelight in 2010 when he made 498 in a Giles Shield match.

Dhanawade’s coach Mobin Shaikh was quoted as saying by The Indian Express,“Agar Wankhede mein khelna hai toh bada score marna hi hoga (If he wants to play at the Wankhede Stadium, he has to score big). It’s very tough for any player from the suburbs to make it to the Mumbai Under-16 side. Fifties, 60s or even a hundred or two will not make a big impact. He needed a very big score and now that he has achieved it, hopefully he will carry on from here.”

Dhanawade’s mammoth score hasn’t gone unnoticed from the authorities. According to news reports, the government of Maharashtra will bear the 15-year-old’s coaching and education expenses.