Cricket got its first 1000-runs man when Kalyan lad Pranav Dhanawade amassed 1009 runs in an innings in a local schools’ cricket match, organized by the Mumbai Cricket Association.
The 15-year-old, representing Smt. KC Gandhi School (Kalyan) against Arya Gurukul School in the HT Bhandari Cup inter-school cricket tournament, reached the landmark off only 323 balls.
His epic innings was laced with 59 towering sixes and 129 fours.
He was unbeaten on 1,009 when his team declared their innings at 1,465 for three.
Immediately after entering the record books Dhanawade’s heroics were lauded by none other than batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar.
Tendulkar, who himself was involved in a historic partnership of 664 runs with fellow-Mumbai teammate Vinod Kambli in the 1988 Harris Shield tournament took to Twitter to praise Dhanawade’s feat.
“Congrats #PranavDhanawade on being the first ever to score 1000 runs in an innings. Well done and work hard. You need to scale new peaks!” the master blaster tweeted.
Tendulkar, who is known to motivate young talent, had lauded young Prithvi Shaw, who had scored 546 in the Harris Shield schools’ tournament in 2013.
Like many young cricket stars, Tendulkar is the reason why Dhanawade took up the game and the opening batsman from Kalyan is a friend of Sachin’s son, Arjun.
His father Prashant Dhanawade, an autorickshaw driver, said, "Pranav’s idol is Sachin Tendulkar. He is the reason why Pranav took up the game. Sachin's son, Arjun, is a good friend of Pranav. They used to play together in Mumbai.”
India spinner Harbhajan Singh also lavished praise on the young batsman.
"Well played...no matter what levels cricket it is but numbers are just unbelievable.another @sachin_rt in making?" Harbhajan tweeted.
