12-year-old makes world record 439 in inter-school match

Twelve-year-old Sarfaraz Khan's wish for a mobile phone worth Rs5,000 is about to be granted by his father Naushad. On Wednesday, the boy made a record in inter-school cricket by smacking a mammoth 439 in the prestigious Harris Shield tournament at the MB Union Cricket Club grounds, Cross Maidan.

Naushad, who bought Sarfaraz a bicycle after the boy's extraordinary performance in the Giles Shield semi-final last year, said he would be happy to gift his son whatever he wants. "He has made me proud and I want to fulfil his wish," he said.

Harris Shield is the tournament in which a certain Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli piled up a world record 664 runs for the third wicket in February 1988, helping their school, Shardashram Vidyamandir, to score 748 for 2 in 122 overs against St Xavier's School at Azad Maidan.

"After breaking my icon Sachin Sir's record I wanted to create a new record by overtaking Sanjeev Jadhav who had made 422 runs [in 1985-86]," the excited Sarfaraz said.

The previous highest score in the 113-year-old tournament was by Ramesh Nagdev (427*, 1963-64). Sanjeev Jadhav, another Shardashram Vidyamandir student, had the second highest score. Other high scorers include Mumbai skipper and Test discard Wasim Jaffer, who made an unbeaten 400 in 1992-93. Tendulkar, with his unbeaten 346, is the 10th highest scorer.

Sarfaraz's innings, which came in 456 minutes, saw his Rizvi Springfield High School gather a mountain of first inning runs -- 750 for 9 -- against the Indian Education Society, Kandivli, who were tottering at 60 for 6 in 53 overs.

Sarfaraz did not waste deliveries, making the huge score off just 421 balls; he hit 12 sixes and 56 boundaries. He resumed his game on Wednesday -- day 2 -- at 235 runs and scored 204 in the first session before ending up caught, at point, just after lunch.

Rizvi Springfield coach Raju Pathak said: "It was Sarfaraz's debut Harris Shield match. Can you believe it? He is an extraordinary talent. I had to drop senior players to accommodate him in the playing XI. He has been doing extraordinarily well in the last few matches."