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12-year-old Sarfaraz Khan
who smashed a record 439 |
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Malegaon
Boy in Maharashtra Ranji Test Cricket Team:
Azhar Ahmed, a young cricketer from
Malegaon - the Muslim dominated textile town in North Maharashtra
has been included.....
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Mumbai:
Two decades ago Sachin Tendulkar used the Mumbai schools tournament
to announce he was good enough to play for India, and now
12-year-old Sarfaraz Khan has emulated his idol smashing a record
439 runs in the same event, and then said he wanted to fulfill his
father's dream by playing for India.
Sarfaraz
hit 12 sixes and 56 boundaries during his 421-ball innings for
Springfield Rizvi School in a three-day match against Indian
Education Society in the Harris Shield Inter-School tournament here
Wednesday.
Sarfaraz broke Sanjeev Jadhav's record
of 422 run set in 1986 for Sharadashram Vidyamandir School.
An ecscatic Sarfaraz still can't
believe that he had surpassed his idol Tendulkar, who had scored 346
runs during a 664-run partnership with Vinod Kambli (349) in 1988
for Sharadashram Vidyamandir School.
Sarfaraz,
a sixth grade student, feels that the innings will help him to
fulfill his father's dream.
"My father (Naushad Khan) wanted to
play for India, but it remained a dream for him. I feel this innings
will help me to do what he couldn't," said Sarfaraz with his father
by his side.
The feeling of scoring 400 runs in a
school cricket is yet to sink in, but the young guy shudders to play
another massive inning for fear of encountering the media.
"I will never play another such
innings in my life. Fighting it out on the field is much better than
posing," quipped Sarfraz as he tried to wriggle out of a crowd of
cameramen and reporters.
Sarfraz
has never met his idol Tendulkar, but has seen the batting maestro
offer some batting tips to former Bangladesh captain Mohammed
Ashraful during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match last year.
He said Tendulkar's words of advice to
Ashraful were ringing in his ears during his marathon innings.
"I heard Tendulkar telling Ashraful to
never take his eyes off the ball. I just followed it and right from
the first delivery I faced I followed it religiously," he said.
For Sarfraz's coach Raju Pathak he is
a special talent.
"I make him face bowlers like Kamran
Khan and Iqbal Abdullah in the nets and that has paid off for
Sarfraz. He is a wonder kid and hope that he works hard and goes on
to represent India one day," he said.
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