Delhi Ranji cricketer Mohit Ahlawat scores 300 in a local T20 game
What’s the story?
Delhi batsman Mohit Ahlawat created a world record by becoming the first batsman to score a triple-century in an innings in T20 cricket. The 21-year-old batsman from Panipat, Ahlawat smashed 300 in just 72 balls with the help of 14 fours and 39 sixes for his team Maavi XI against Friends XI at Lalita Park in a local tournament in Delhi called Friends Premier League.
In case you didn’t know...
Alhawat is a wicketkeeper-batsman, who made his debut for the Delhi Ranji team against Rajasthan in 2015. Unfortunately, he was dropped from the team after playing just three matches as he managed to score a combined total of five runs in those matches.
In 2013, Sri Lanka’s Dhanuka Pathirana scored a remarkable 277 off just 72 balls in a Twenty20 match in Lancashire’s Saddleworth League. This knock helped his team Austerlands amass a total of 366 for 2 which gave them an easy win over their opponents. Pathirana smashed 29 sixes and 18 fours in his record innings. This was the previous highest score in any recognised T20 game.
The heart of the matter
Ahlawat was batting on 250 at the end of 18 overs and managed to score the remaining 50 runs in the last two overs with 34 coming off the last over. Out of those 34 runs, he scored 30 off the last five balls by hitting five sixes.
With this, his team ended up scoring 416 for the loss of one wicket in their 20 overs. Apart from Ahlawat, his opening partner, Gaurav scored 86 runs off 39 runs with the help of 15 fours and 3 sixes. Here is the scorecard of the Maavi XI innings.
Parallels from history
A similar incident took place last year when a 15-year-old from Mumbai, Pranav Dhanawade scored 1000 runs in just 323 balls for KC Gandhi School against Arya Gurukul School. This feat was never achieved in any form of recognised cricket. His team declared their innings on 1465, another world record while the opposition team had been dismissed for 31.
Sportskeeda’s take
No team has scored 300 in T20 cricket, but Ahlawat single-handedly achieved the feat. It is not very easy to score these many runs in the T20 format. So, it will be good if the cricket fans around the world applaud his knock rather than criticising him citing the size of the ground, and quality of the bowlers, just like they did with Pranav Dhanawade. This will also open the door for Ahlawat to represent Delhi in the limited-over tournaments in the future.