Opening batsman Prithvi Shaw on Thursday rediscovered his form and became the eighth Indian player to score a double century in 50-over cricket as he smashed an unbeaten 227 off 152 deliveries, including a whopping 31 fours and five sixes, for Mumbai against minnows Puducherry in a Vijay Hazare Trophy match here.
Shaw, 21, played through the innings and scored the runs at a rate of 149.34. Further aided by Suryakumar Yadav’s rapidfire 58-ball 133, Mumbai to 457 for four wickets in 50 overs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. In reply, Puducherry managed just 224 in 38.1 overs to lose by 233 runs.
Shaw, who was captaining Mumbai in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, reached his 200 in just 142 balls. Shaw’s Mumbai teammate and opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal was the last Indian to score a double hundred in 50-over cricket. Jaiswal had scored 203 against Jharkhand during the Vijay Hazare Trophy in October 2019.
Mumbai’s 457/4 is the highest score by any team in a 50-over match in India, surpassing the 438/4 that South Africa had scored against India at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in 2015.
The previous highest score in the history of the Vijay Hazare Trophy was also set earlier this season when Jharkhand made 422/9 against Madhya Pradesh on the back of captain and wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan’s 94-ball 173 only a few days ago.
Shaw’s double century comes against a Puducherry who used as many as eight bowlers with 35-year-old former India Test bowler Pankaj Singh leading the line-up. Puducherry have suffered heavy defeats in the two earlier matches of the tournament, losing to Delhi by 179 runs and to Rajasthan by six wickets against in their opening match.
Interestingly, Pankaj knows Sawai Man Singh Stadium — the headquarters of the Rajasthan team — inside out as it was here that he practised and played for several years in domestic tournaments. He was part of the Ranji Trophy-winning Rajasthan teams in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
Shaw’s 227 not out is the highest score by any captain in a 50-over match, surpassing the 222 not out that South African great Graeme Pollock scored for Eastern Province against Border in 1974.
A poor patch of form throughout the 2020 Indian Premier League while representing Delhi Capitals, coupled with scores of nought and four in India’s first Test against Australia in December, led to Shaw being dropped from the Indian team for the remainder of the Australian tour. He was also not selected for the ongoing four-match Test series at home against England and the T20I series that begins on March 12.
However, Shaw struck fine form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, having scored an unbeaten 105 against Delhi in Mumbai’s first match of the tournament and 34 in the next match.