Indian Schoolboy Rewrites Record Books but Should We Believe the Hype?
Indian teenager Pranav Dhanawade broke records and probably the scorers' pencils this week when he registered cricket's highest individual score during an inter-school game recently.
While this is clearly a remarkable achievement of skill, stamina and concentration—for the scorers as much as the batsman—the ensuing social media explosion and media attention has to be taken with a large pinch of salt considering the farcical nature of the match.
Especially, taking some pertinent information regarding the opposition's comparative strength...or lack of, into account.
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Let's take a closer look at this undoubtedly impressive feat while adding a touch of context to the circumstances.
The previous record
Up until Monday, the 4 January 2016, Arthur Collins' innings of 628, made during a junior match for Clifton College in 1899, was the highest individual score in the history of cricket.
As reported in great detail by ESPNCricinfo here, this epic knock was made on an extremely small pitch and against weak opposition but, nevertheless, was still a considerable achievement.
The record incredibly survived for more than a 116 years until the 15-year-old Dhanawade walked to the crease in Mumbai recently.
The situation
Dhanawade's herculean innings was achieved in an inter-school, two-day match between Arya Gurukul and KC Ghandi English School and was part of a Mumbai Cricket Board-sanctioned competition for Under-16 cricketers.
After dismissing Arya Gurukul for just 31, KC Ghandi English School, who actually lost the toss, went out to bat, hoping to rack up a significant first-innings lead.
And sure enough, 94 overs and 1,465 Dhanawade-inspired runs later, the KC Ghandi leadership team finally decided enough was enough and declared. Happy with a 1,434-run lead, skipper?
Clearly the track had begun to disintegrate by then as Arya Gurukul were dismissed for just 52 runs in 14.5 overs to lose by the small matter of an innings and 1,382 runs.
A confidence-crushing result which probably sent 11 schoolkids into early cricketing retirement.
Spirit of cricket anyone? Check out the incredible/ludicrous scorecard.
The statistics
Generally speaking, a decent strike rate in Twenty20 cricket can be anything over 130 runs scored per 100 balls faced—Chris Gayle's is 149.33.
However, Dhanawade, whose previous highest score was 80-something, blasted his runs at a rate of 312.38. Err...when's the next Indian Premier League auction?
The 15-year-old was at the crease for 395 minutes (just under seven hours) and smashed 59 sixes and 129 fours over and past the, no doubt, dispirited fielders.
And spare a thought for the lads who had to bowl and, consequently, collected bowling figures that will haunt them for years to come.
Ayush Dubey was the pick of the bunch with his haul of two scalps for just 352 runs while Tejas Missar deserves special mention for his 36 balls which yielded 142 runs.
The pitch
Unsurprisingly a small playing surface at the ground, which is situated in a northern suburb of Mumbai, helped to fuel Dhanawade's relentless effort.
As reported by ESPNCricinfo:
"Nestling between two housing complexes, the ground - with a typically muddy Mumbai pitch - is rectangular with extremely short, walled-in square boundaries. Abhishek Karane, a BCCI umpire who was at the match, said it was 110 metres in breadth and 135 metres long but the straight boundaries had been pulled in. Dhanawade targeted the shorter square boundaries, especially on the legside.
"
Fifty metres isn't a great distance to hit a hard, leather cricket ball, but the fact that the teenager managed to clear the ropes on 59 occasions showed impressive strength.
The opposition
However, here is where things get more interesting.
As reported by Andy Bull in the Guardian, the opposition who endured such a frightful beating were predominantly from the Under-14s and not the Under-16s, thus, two years younger than Dhanawade's side.
Allegedly, the Arya Gurukul headmaster refused permission for most of his school's regular U16 players to play as they were revising for their exams.
Thus, although it wasn't exactly men against boys, bigger boys against smaller boys would be a fairly accurate comparison.
And most people who played sport in their school days will probably remember how difficult it was when facing the "giants" from the year above, never mind two years above!
The summary
But seriously, not to take anything away from Dhanawade as this was truly a staggering effort regardless of the opposition; however, it's worth keeping a touch of perspective on the youngster's achievement as much for his sake as anything else.
Every few years, a young batsman makes a monumental score (OK, not necessarily a quadruple-figure one) and grabs some headlines. See Armaan Jaffer and Prithvi Shaw. Only for the added attention and exposure to prove detrimental to their development.
Fingers crossed, this won't affect the 15-year-old Dhanawade and he can go on to fulfil his dream of becoming a professional cricketer.
If not, at the very least, he'll surely be a record holder for some years to come.
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