Oh, boy! 59 sixes, 129 fours: Mumbai teenager hits 1,009 in 323 balls

Mumbai teenager Pranav Dhanawade on Tuesday scripted history by becoming the first cricketer ever to notch up a four-figure score by smashing an unbeaten knock of 1,009 in an inter-school tournament in Kalyan.

The 15-year-old, playing for KC Gandhi Higher Secondary School, reached the mammoth score in just 323 deliveries with a jaw-dropping strike rate of 312.38 in the game against Arya Gurukul in the Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).

In the course of his innings, which lasted 395 minutes, Dhanawade smashed a whopping 129 fours and 59 sixes.
The epic knock ended when his school declared at 1,465, which is also a world record. His school went past Victoria’s 1,107 against New South Wales made in 1926.

Dhanawade now holds the record for the highest individual score in any form of cricket, bettering AEJ Collins’ 628 not out for Clark’s House against North Town in 1899 in the UK.

On Monday, Dhanawade broke the individual record by scoring 652 runs.

Son of an autorickshaw driver, Dhanawade has been playing cricket since he was five under the tutelage of coach Mobin Sheikh. A wicket-keeper batsman, he has dreams of emulating his idol Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“I have always been a big-hitter,” he said. “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,” said Dhanawade, talking about the 546-run mark set by Mumbai’s Prithvi Shaw at Azad Maidan in 2013.

PTI