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5 sporting records by Indians which will never be broken

Milkha Singh (extreme right) in action at the 1960 Rome Olympics

Records are meant to be broken” – goes a popular saying.

When Milkha Singh clocked 45.6 seconds in the 400m event at the 1960 Rome Olympics, he beat the previous Olympic best of 45.9 and yet, missed out on a podium finish, with Otis Davis and Carl Kaufmann both timing 44.9 to set a new world record. Today, the same record stands at 43.18 seconds, held by Michael Johnson from the USA.

Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad’s 52-year-old opening partnership of 413 runs for India against New Zealand was outdone in 2008 when South Africans Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie added 415 runs for the 1st wicket, in Bangladesh.

Over the years, India has produced athletes of the highest quality, spanning every sport. At the world stage, they have made us proud, time and again, with the greatness of the records they’ve achieved.

Some of those, however, are so special that they stand the test of time, undefeated, across generations.

Let us take a look at 5 such ‘unbreakable’ records:

#5 Pranav Dhanawade

Pranav Dhanawade en route to his 1009 runs in an innings

On 5 January 2016, wonder boy Pranav Dhanawade became the first person, ever, to score 1000 runs in a single innings of a cricket match.

Playing against Arya Gurukul School in an under-16 tournament organized by the Mumbai Cricket Association, 15-year-old Pranav from KC Gandhi School smashed his way into the record books by surpassing the previous best score of 628 not out which was held by A.E.J. Collins of England.

Batting on 652* at stumps on the opening day, he had already broken the Englishman’s 116-year-old record when he took the crease on Day 2. The world took notice and watched in amazement as the Mumbai-schoolboy cruised to the new highest individual score in any form of cricket.

In a knock that consisted of 59 sixes and 129 fours, he stayed unbeaten on 1009 runs off 323 balls when his team decided to declare their innings on 1465, another world record.

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