Mumbai kid Pranav Dhanawade scored a mind-boggling 1009 runs yesterday in a school match, and has had all of social media twittering about it.
He has been the centre of praise from stalwarts like Sachin and Dhoni, and also the butt of a few jokes. For Eg.
Pranav Dhanawade is that Sharma ji ka beta for aspiring cricketers
— Retarded Writer (@retardedwriter) January 5, 2016
He has been mentioned even in top cricketing websites like Cricinfo, and has had national and international players talking about his performance. However, there is also a flip side to it, as the spotlight is going to be on him for a long time now. In a way, the journey will only get tougher.
Even if he scores a double hundred in the next match, it is going to 800 runs lesser than his previous score. 800 runs. That is more runs Venkatesh Prasad in his entire career for India!
However, amidst all the brouhaha, there is something that nobody seems to be talking about – what about the bowlers?
Nobody seems to be sparing a thought for the poor guys. I mean, imagine you’ve just come to play a school game, and it makes you feel like a bonded labourer for two days, just picking up the ball, running to the pitch, getting hammered to the boundary, and then repeating the process another 499 times!
Pranav scored a total of 1009 runs off 327 balls, which involved a total of 129 fours and 59 sixes. To put that in perspective, just imagine this – 22 overs in which every ball was hit for a four. And then another ten overs where every ball was hit for a six!
Imagine what would be going through the bowlers minds! Those poor guys must also be aspiring cricketers as well. I wonder if A. Dubey, who gave away a very nice round figure of 350 runs, is going to be sleeping a very good night’s sleep. He must have dreamt of Pranav dancing down the track and smashing him for sixes, like Warne and Sachin a few decades back.
Or Salunke, Bedekar, and H. Jadhav, who each gave away 250 runs each. Did they have conversations between themselves, these kids? Did one of them walk up to the other in between and say, ‘Dude, WTF is going on? This seems like EA Cricket 2015!’. I am assuming once the guy reached 600 runs or so, the bowlers just took it upon themselves to see how far they could push it.
Jadhav, Bedekar and Dubey weren’t great with the bat either, if you look at the scorecard carefully. Between them, they batted for a total of seven deliveries, and scored a grand total of zero runs!
What about the coach of the opposing school – Arya Gurukul (CBSE)?
Did he get his boys into a huddle and inspire them? And what do you even say? ‘Guys, what do I say? I’m sure you can read the scoreboard. Play your natural game’.
Well, things didn’t get any better for the poor blokes. In the second innings, Bedekar, Dubey, and Jadhav batted for a total of six deliveries, and scored…ahem, how do I put it? What is India’s greatest contribution to the world of mathematics?
Yeah, you get the point.
At the end of what must have seemed like a long Kurukshetra war, the match came to an end. With KC Gandhi English School beating Arya Gurukul by an innings and 1382 runs – a victory so brutal, even Mahatma Gandhi would have said, ‘Ab bas kar, pagle’.
An innings and 1382 runs! I wonder if the coach of the opposition team walked into a bar that night and had two beers and thought about his life.
I wonder how those kids in the opposition team are taking it. Are they rethinking their choices in life? Did one of their fathers call them to the side and say, ‘Dekho beta. Let’s go through the scorecard one more time, and then we’ll get the Engineering Coaching books’.
I hope they’re playing it cool.
Keep the fire burning, Bedekar, Dubey and Jadhav. My prayers are with you!
(Scorecards taken from Cricinfo. Featured Image courtesy rediff.com)
