Ishan Kishan hammers 173 off just 94 balls in Vijay Hazare Trophy; social media erupts

Indore: Swashbuckling batsman-wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan hammered 173 off just 94 balls – including 19 sixes and 11 boundaries — to propel Jharkhand to a humongous 324-run win — the third highest margin by runs in the world — over Madhya Pradesh in a Group B match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here Saturday.

Jharkhand collected four points from the win recorded at the Holkar Cricket Stadium.

Later Saturday evening, Kishan was picked, as deputy to preferred wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, in a 19-member Indian T20 squad for five T20 Internationals against England from March 12 in Ahmedabad.

Captain-cum-opener Kishan’s previous highest score in List A matches, classified as domestic limited over matches, was 139. His whirlwind innings helped Jharkhand to an insurmountable 422 for nine wickets off the allotted 50 overs.

Then fast blower Varun Aaron, who went unsold at the recent Indian Premier League auction, captured six wickets for 37 in just 5.4 overs to bundle out Madhya Pradesh for 98 in 18.4 overs for an easy win that fetched them four points. Later, Kishan also took seven catches to roundup a superb all-round display.

Kishan reached his 50 off 42 balls, 100 off 74 balls, 150 off 86 balls — the second fastest by an Indian in List A matches, behind Dinesh Karthik’s 80-ball 150 for Tamil Nadu against in Hyderabad in 2011. In all, Karthik scored 154 not out off 83 balls.

Kishan’s last 71 runs came off a mere 20 balls, which helped him finish the knock at a strike rate of a mindboggling 184.04.

Only two wicketkeeper-captains have scored more runs in an innings than Kishan in List A matches. Morne van Wyk of Dolphins hammered 175 not out off 171balls against Knights in Momentum One Day Cup in October 2014, and Moin Khan of Pakistan International Airlines carted 174 off 152 balls against Lahore-W in March 2003.

Kishan’s seven catches equals the most taken in a List A match. The other three are: Mahesh Rawat (7 catches) for Railways against Madhya Pradesh in 2012; Parthiv Patel (6 catches and 1 stumping) for West Zone against Central Zone in 2014; and, Keenan Vaz (6 catches and 1 stumping) for Goa against Gujarat in 2018.

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In terms of biggest wins by runs in List A matches, only English counties Somerset and Gloucestershire have posted bigger victories than Jharkhand. While Somerset mauled Devon by 346 runs in 1990, Gloucestershire thrashed Buckinghamshire by 324 runs in 2003.

In India, Jharkhand’s total was the second highest in limited overs cricket, behind 438 for four wickets that South Africa posted against India in Mumbai in 2015.

Kishan was in murderous form. After Jharkhand lost Utkarsh Singh (6) for 10 runs, left-handed Kishan was involved in two big partnerships that completely demoralised the six-man Madhya Pradesh bowling attack.

Kishan, along with 16-year-old Kumar Kushagra, raised 110 for the second wicket. In this partnership, Kushagra’s contribution was 26. Then, Kishan and Virat Singh (68 off 49 balls) put on 117 for the third wicket, and that took the team total to 240. Later, Sumit Kumar scored a 58-ball 52 and Anukul Roy made a rapidfire 39-ball 72 to help Jharkhand to 422 for nine in 50 overs.

Madhya Pradesh bowler Gaurav Yadav’s four-wicket was buried in the din.

Brief scores:

In Indore: Jharkhand422/9 wkts in 50 overs (Ishan Kishan 173, Anukul Roy 72; Gaurav Yadav 4-73) beat Madhya Pradesh 98 all out in 18.4 overs (Abhishek Bhandari 42; Venkatesh Iyer 23; Varun Aaron 6-37) by 324 runs

In Indore: Punjab 288/4 in 50 overs (GS Mann 139 not out, Prabhsimran 71, Sanvir 58) lost to Tamil Nadu 289/4 in 49 overs (N Jagadeesan 101, B Aparajith 88, Sharukh Khan 55 not out) by six wickets

In Bengaluru: Karnataka 246/8 in 50 overs (D Padikkal 52, A Joshi 68, S Sharma 3/40) lost to Uttar Pradesh 215/4 in 45.2 overs (Rinku Singh 62 not out, A Goswami 54, K Sharma 40) by by 9 runs (VJD method)

In Surat: Chhattisgarh 231 all out in 48.5 overs (Shashank Chandraker 92, Ashutosh Singh 47, Amandeep Khare 38, Arzan Nagwaswalla 6/54) lost to Gujarat 232/7 wkts in 48.1 overs (Dhruv Raval 38, Bhargav Merai 38, Het Patel 35, Veer Pratap Singh 2/38) by 3 wkts

In Alur (Karnataka): Bihar 189 all out in 45.5 overs (Anuj Raj 72, Shabbir Khan 46 not out, Pradeep T. 6/43) lost to Railways 190 for no loss in 29 overs (Mrunal Devdhar 105 not out, Pratham Singh 72 not out) by 10 wkts

In Alur (Karnataka): Odisha 258/8 wkts in 45 overs (Sandeep Pattnaik 67, Gourav Choudhury 57, Kartik Biswal 45 not out, Sree Santh 2/41) lost to Kerala 233/4 wkts in 38.2 overs (Robin Uthappa 107, Sachin Baby 40, Sourav Kanoja 3/43) by 34 Runs (VJD Method)

In Indore: Vidarbha 331/6 wkts in 50 overs (Yash Rathod 117, Faiz Fazal 100, C. Stephen 3/66) lost to Andhra: 332/7 wkts in 49.2 overs (Ricky Bhui 101 not out, Hanuma Vihari 65, Nitish Reddy 54, Darshan Nalkande 3/76) by 3 wkts

In Surat: Goa: 263 all out in 49.1 overs (Snehal Kauthankar 81, Eknath Kerkar 43, A Sheth 3/50) lost to Baroda: 264/5 wkts in 48.3 overs (Vishnu Solanki 108, Krunal Pandya 71, Smit Patel 58, Amit Verma 2/39) by 5 wkts

In Surat: Hyderabad: 349/5 wkts in 50 overs (Tilak Varma 156 not out, Tanmay Agarwal 86, Bavanaka Sandeep 41, Rajat Dey 2) beat Tripura: 236 all out in 42 overs (Milind Kumar 67, Bikramkumar Das 65, Chama V Milind 5/43) by 113 runs

IANS