Vaibhav Suryavanshi (R) in action for Bihar. (PTI)
On an astonishing opening day of the Vijay Hazare Trophy season, all eyeballs were glued to trickling updates from Jaipur and Bengaluru, where India heavyweights Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli marked their domestic attendance with stupendous centuries. 18 hundreds were hit in 16 matches among teams in the four Elite Groups, but it was the three centuries in a Plate group match that had triggered debates.
Bihar’s brutal suplex of the Arunachal Pradesh bowlers at the JSCA Oval in Ranchi as they posted a mammoth 574/6 resumed the distending concerns over world records being broken in the lower divisions of professional cricket in India.
Within three-and-a-half hours, Bihar went from being one of the better-equipped Plate division contenders to the summit of all of List A batting history. Devastating centuries from the precocious Vaibhav Suryavanshi, his captain Sakibul Gani, and wicket-keeper Ayush Loharuka meant that Bihar became the first team to breach the 550-run mark in a recognised men’s 50-over game.
At the expense of six wickets, Bihar pumped 87 boundaries (49 fours, 38 sixes) that yielded 424 runs, which in itself constitutes the sixth-highest List A score by a state team in India.
“Record alert,” BCCI president Mithun Manhas was the first dignitary who took Bihar’s mayhem over Arunachal out to the world through a social media post. As much as Manhas’ recognition of the feats could be morale-boosting for the victor, the overall lopsided setting of the contest, or no-contest, leaves a bitter aftertaste.
The mere thought of the 14-year-old Suryavanshi – already a cut above the Plate group competition – batting full 50 overs would have sent shivers down the spine of the collective Arunachal attack, leaving ideals of a fair contest in the back burner.
Suryavanshi made it amply clear that no record in the format could be out of his reach one day when he converted his maiden List A century into a whopping 190 that took away a bevy of world records while also making him the youngest man (14y 272d) to crack three figures in 50-over cricket.
By the time Suryavanshi overshadowed South Africa batting legend AB de Villiers for the fastest List A 150 in 59 deliveries, Bihar had zapped 200 inside 18 overs. Even after finally managing to see the southpaw off in the 27th over, Arunachal had more dread awaiting as Gani and Loharuka multiplied the team score 2.2 times. Gani, who famously made his First-Class debut with a triple century against Mizoram in 2022, even eclipsed Suryavanshi’s 36-ball ton with a century in 32 balls — now the fastest by an Indian batter in the format. Meanwhile, Loharuka’s 52-ball century, the slowest among the three, is equivalent to the quickest international 50-over ton by an Indian man, held by Virat Kohli.
The communal disintegration of world records is becoming increasingly commonplace under the expanded 38-team system in India, rather than marking an outcome from the pure one-off madness that could engulf a batter/team on their day. Unfortunately, the fledgling Arunachal are put through the wringer more often than their Northeast peers in the last seven seasons since their arrival on the BCCI roster.
The problem does not confine to the List A format, but also seeps into the depths of the Ranji Trophy and T20 cricket. Arunachal now rank as the only team to concede more than 500 runs twice in List A cricket. They were beaten by 435 runs when they leaked 506 against Tamil Nadu in 2022. Wednesday’s 397-run loss to Bihar stands second on the heaviest margin of defeats in List A cricket. Arunachal also bears the ignominy of the biggest-ever defeat by an Indian First-Class team, having lost by an innings and 551 runs to Goa last season.
Even the highest-ever total in T20 history, spanning over 16,000 matches, was etched in a school ground in Indore last year when an overbearing Baroda set a 350-run target for Sikkim and won the contest by 263 runs. Last month, Meghalaya’s Akash Kumar Choudhary similarly attained First-Class status for his eight consecutive sixes against Arunachal in a Ranji Trophy plate outing in Surat – a never-before seen feat in all 250 years of recognised red-ball cricket.
While a world record has come home, spin legend R Ashwin implored the stakeholders to resurvey the path charted for Indian cricket’s outreach program to the Northeast. “Huge applause for Vaibhav Suryavanshi. But I again want to ask a question. There is a huge divide, chalk and cheese, in terms of quality with some teams. It becomes very lop-sided and there is no contest at all,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“Credit to Vaibhav for his performance. He is doing what he has to do. But if we are serious about teams like Arunachal Pradesh becoming good sides, what will this do to their confidence?”
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