Story behind Ahlawat’s T20 triple century
The editor of Cricket Statistician analyses recent events
Strange and extraordinary stories from minor cricket continue to flow. Appearing for Maavi XI in a Friends Premier League match at Delhi’s Lalita Park, Mohit Ahlawat hit 39 sixes and 14 fours from just 72 balls to reach a remarkable milestone, taking 34 off the last over to reach exactly 300 not out.
His team scored 416-2 against Friends XI who were then all out for 200 in 13 overs.
The previous record was 277 not out in a game in Lancashire. The Times of India reported:
The tournament where Ahlawat exploded is being played at Lalita Park in East Delhi.With no Delhi District Association-backed tournaments taking place given the state of affairs in the association, several local cricketers are playing in these club-based leagues.
Ahlawat made his Ranji Trophy debut in November 2015. He has been on the fringes ever since, but found his mojo on Tuesday and went berserk. The match began as just another game in a season in which he has hopped from team to team to get maximum match exposure. This time he got a call from Maavi XI to play in the quarter-final of the Friends Premier League.
“They invited me to play and I simply went. It’s good that something like that has happened,” Ahlawat said, keeping it simple.
He was more or less instantly called for a trial with IPL team Delhi Daredevils.
There is debate about the size of the ground, with some suggesting 65m boundaries and some 50, but the scores suggest something very small. Lalita Park is in a substantially built-up area in Delhi, though with patches of green.
He has, indeed, played first-class cricket, appearing in three games for Delhi in 2015 (scoring 4,0, and 1).
When I was young my school team played in the local 20-over knockout with little success so somebody decided a couple of teachers should play.
One of them was a player with the skill (though probably not the application) to have played first-class cricket.
Up against village bowling and a short legside boundary he hit – slogged even – nine sixes in the last three overs of the innings, scoring the first century of the competition. We went on to win the trophy, but there was a feeling that this was not quite right, somehow.
So, what we have is a player of first-class or near first-class status playing what is basically park cricket (he apparently has other huge scores, including an innings of 224 not out).
But numbers are numbers and a record is a record.
Some very fast centuries against declaration bowling have been expunged from first-class records, but there are no workable criteria to decide which minor cricket records are less meritorious than others.