A 15-year-old boy, Pranav Dhanawade, from KC Gandhi School in Kalyan scored an unbeaten 1009 runs against Arya Gurukul School in a Bhandari Cup match on Monday. This is an under-16 tournament organised by Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) for the benefit of schools in the suburbs.
This score is the highest in any level of cricket. Dhanawade scored these runs in just 323 balls. His innings was decorated with 129 boundaries and 59 sixes.
AEJ Collins, an Indian-born Englishman, held the record for scoring 628 runs for Clarks House against North Town in Clifton College in 1899. Dhanawade also went past Prithvi Shaw's score of 546 for Rizvi Springfield in the Harris Shield Trophy in 2013-2014.
KC Gandhi School finished Day 1 of the match with a whopping 956 runs for the loss of one wicket. His teammates Aakash Singh and Siddhesh Patil also scored centuries. They have finally declared for a score of 1465 runs.
Dhanawane then interacted with a Times of India representative and said that he was very happy. The thought of creating a record never reportedly came to his mind while he was scripting history at the Union Cricket Club ground. But once he crossed the 400-run mark, he then thought it was possible to break the world record.
Dhanawade's father, who is an auto-rickshaw driver in Mumbai, was extremely delighted after his son broke the world record.
"I actually got to watch him only after he had crossed 300. A father of one of his friends called me and asked, 'you are not at the ground?'. So I immediately rushed to the venue. It's obviously a very proud day. It's a reward for 11 years of his hard work," Pranav's father Prashant was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
"There's a lot of talent in our area but we lack proper facilities for children to play and get trained. For this reason, when Pranav turned nine, I enrolled him for coaching at MIG in Bandra."
In 2009, Royal Challenger Bangalore's wonder kid who is now a member of the India U-19 squad that will travel to Bangladesh for the ICC U-19 World Cup also has a massive score to his name (439).
