FOR more than a century, the 628 runs scored in a single cricket innings by 13-year-old British public schoolboy A E J Collins had appeared an unsurpassable world record.

    But on Tuesday, 116 years later, it was well and truly smashed by an Indian prodigy who hit 1,009 runs — including 59 sixes and 129 fours.

    Fifteen-year-old Pranav Dhanawade’s extraordinary innings not only beat the previous record, set by Collins in an inter-house match at Clifton College in Bristol in 1899.

    It also earned him a further place in the sport’s history as the first batsman ever to score more than 1,000 runs in a single knock.

    After amassing the huge score batting for his team KC Ghandhi School in an inter-school cricket tournament in Mumbai, Dhanawade 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.”

    At the end of the first day of this two-day match, Dhanawade admitted he was targeting a four-figure total. “Why not? I am confident that I can do it,” Dhanawade said, according to DNA India.

    “I will definitely try to score 1,000 runs as I am just 350 away. If I can score 600 runs in two sessions, I am confident of scoring 350 in one session.”

    Dhanawade, the son of a rickshaw driver, achieved the remarkable feat in just 323 balls, bludgeoning 59 sixes and 129 fours with a strike rate of 312.38.

    After resuming on 652, Dhanawade picked up where he left off and made light work of the Arya Gurukul School’s bowling attack in the morning as he reached 921 at lunch.

    He said he “drank only one glass of milk” when he went out to bat on the second day and broke the 1,000-run barrier.

    If he was nervous closing in on the 1,000 mark, Dhanawade didn’t show it before the stunning knock was brought to an end with the declaration.

    KT Gandhi School had earlier skittled Arya Gurukul out for just 31 before making equally light work in the second innings bowling them out for 52 to win by an innings and 1,382 runs.

    “My teachers have helped me a lot and now I want to play the Ranji Trophy,” Dhanawade was quoted as saying by India Today. “I have always been a big-hitter. 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 hearing of his son’s exploits, Dhanawade’s father made his way to the ground to watch the incredible display.

    “I reached there as he was just reaching the milestone of 300,” Prashant Dhanawade told the Hindustan Times.

    “I was nervous throughout, but was just happy to see my son batting. I want my son to become a great cricketer. He has proved that he has the talent today.”

    (SD-Agencies)