Guys World

Mumbai teenager Pranav Dhanawade on Tuesday made 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 Test Match tournament.

The 15-year-old’s knock included 129 fours and 59 sixes during the match at the Union Cricket Academy ground in Kalyan.

The effort helped his school declare on 1465/3, which is also a record for the highest ever team score. Mumbai school cricketer Pranav Dhanawade thus became the first player to score 1000 runs in a single innings.

He achieved this feat against Arya Gurukul School in the HT Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association.

Son of an auto driver, Pranav has been playing cricket since age five. He has been coached by Mobin Sheikh. Pranav, a wicket-keeper batsman, he has dreams of becoming a cricketer like Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“I have always been a big-hitter,” said Dhanawade. “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.”

Pranavs father Prashant busy ferrying passengers and rushed to the ground when he heard of his son’s spectacular effort. “I started getting frantic calls from other parents. I reached there as he was just reaching the milestone of 300. I was nervous throughout, but was just happy to see my son batting,” Said Dhanawade.

While his father watched, Pranav piled on the runs. “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.

Pranav’s coach Mobin Sheikh had told his ward that unless he made a really big score, which forced everyone to sit up and take notice, it would be difficult to break into the Mumbai team.

“Agar Wankhede mein khelna hai toh bada score marna he padega. It’s very hard for any player 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,” Sheikh said.