Narayan Jagadeesan slammed 277, the highest score in the history of List A cricket, for Tamil Nadu against Arunachal Pradesh in a 2022/23 Vijay Hazare Trophy match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Jagadeesan faced 141 balls and hit 25 fours and 15 sixes before Nabam Abo caught him off Chetan Anand. Tamil Nadu, 448-2 in 41.4 overs thereafter, lost some momentum thereafter, and finished on ‘only’ 506-2 as brothers Baba Aparajith and Indrajith slammed unbeaten 31s. Despite the slowing down, Tamil Nadu became the first team to break the 500-run mark in the history of the format, going past England’s 498-4 against the Netherlands earlier this year.
Earlier, Jagadeesan added 416 for the opening stand with B Sai Sudharsan (154 in 102 balls). This is now a world record for any wicket: they went past the second-wicket partnership of 372 between Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels against Zimbabwe in the 2015 World Cup.
Jagadeesan broke Ali Brown’s long-standing men’s List A world record, of 268, that stood for 20 years (Sripali Weerakkody’s 271 not out for Kandyan Ladies Cricket Club against Pushpadana Ladies in 2007 remains the record for women’s List A).
Ten highest scores in the history of men’s List A cricket
1. N Jagadeesan, 277 for Tamil Nadu against Arunachal Pradesh, Bengaluru 2022/23
This was not even the first world record for Jagadeesan in the day. When he reached three figures, he became the first batter in the history of men’s List A cricket to score a hundred in each of five consecutive innings.
2. Ali Brown, 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan, The Oval 2002
Alistair Brown slammed his 160-ball 268 before the first Twenty20 match was ever played – and it was not even his first double-hundred. He merely improved on his 203 from five years ago. Here, he took on an attack consisting of Michael Kasprowicz and Robert Croft to help Surrey pile 438-4. To their credit, Glamorgan made 429.
3. Rohit Sharma, 264 for India against Sri Lanka, Kolkata 2014/15
The highest ODI score till date, Rohit came within a hit of breaking Brown’s record but fell last ball, to Nuwan Kulasekara. Rohit did not merely set a world record: he improved on Virender Sehwag’s 219 by a whopping 45 runs. India made 404-5 and won by 153 runs.
4. D’Arcy Short, 257 for Western Australia against Queensland, Sydney 2018/19
Short’s 257, the highest in the Southern Hemisphere, ended when he got stumped with 28 balls left in the innings. His 23 sixes remain a List A record by some distance (no one has hit more than 17). Western Australia were bowled out for 387 – three overs before the stipulated 50-over mark. Queensland made 271.
5. Shikhar Dhawan, 248 for India A against South Africa A, Pretoria 2013
Two months after winning the Player of the Tournament in the Champions Trophy in England, ‘Gabbar’ slammed the highest List A score in South Africa. He added 285 for the second wicket with his captain Cheteshwar Pujara, helping India A amass 433-3, win by 39 runs, and reach the final of the triangular tournament. There, they would beat Australia A.
6. Martin Guptill, 237* for New Zealand against West Indies, Wellington 2014/15
Guptill batted through fifty overs to set the highest List A score in New Zealand as well as the highest score in World Cup cricket. What makes his innings stand out is that in the entire match, Chris Gayle (61) was the only other person to go past 42. Guptill finished as the leading run-scorer in the World Cup.
7. Travis Head, 230 for South Australia against Queensland, Adelaide 2021/22
Head came to bat in the fourth over and got out in the 47th, and yet made 230 (the only hundred of the match) out of a total of 391-8. The Queensland attack consisted of Michael Neser, Jack Wildermuth, and Gurinder Sandhu, but there was no stopping Head that day. He reached his double-hundred in a record 114 balls: Jagadeesan equalled him today.
8. Ben Dunk, 229* for Tasmania against Queensland, Sydney 2014/15
Dunk’s entry is the third in the top eight against Queensland. Dunk batted through the innings, most of it during a 277-run stand with Tim Paine (125) before George Bailey joined in to take Tasmania to 398-1. Remarkably, Queensland won the match, thanks to a partnership of 280 between openers Usman Khawaja and Chris Hartley.
9. Prithvi Shaw, 227* for Mumbai against Puducherry, Jaipur 2020/21
This was the highest score in Shaw’s golden season, and like Guptill and Dunk, he batted through the fifty overs. The highlight of the Mumbai innings was a 201-run partnership between Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav (133 in 58 balls) off just 103 balls. Astoundingly, Shaw hit only five sixes: the 31 fours did their job.
10. Graeme Pollock, 222* for Eastern Province against Border, East London 1974/75
The first double-hundred in List A cricket came in a 60-over match, but Pollock compensated by coming out at 48-2 in an era when South Africa had been shunned by the global cricket fraternity. In all, he hit 26 fours and six sixes in a 165-ball innings; his record stood for over 27 years until Brown eclipsed it.
The full list: Other double-hundreds in men’s List A cricket
Jamie How, 222 for Central Districts against Northern Districts, Hamilton 2012/13
Ben Duckett, 220* for England Lions against Sri Lanka A, Canterbury 2016
Virender Sehwag, 219 for India against West Indies, Indore 2011/12
Chris Gayle, 215 for West Indies against Zimbabwe, Canberra 2014/15
Sanju Samson, 212* for Kerala against Goa, Alur 2019/20
Fakhar Zaman, 210* for Pakistan against Zimbabwe, Bulawayo 2018
Rohit Sharma, 209 for India against Australia, Bengaluru 2013/14
Abid Ali, 209* for Islamabad against Peshawar, Peshawar 2017/18
Rohit Sharma, 208* for India against Sri Lanka, Mohali 2017/18
Soumya Sarkar, 208* for Abahani Limited against Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, Savar 2018/19
Mohammad Ali, 207 for Pakistan Customs against Defence Housing Authority, Sialkot 2004/05
Alvin Kallicharran, 206 for Warwickshire against Oxfordshire, Birmingham 1984
Sharjeel Khan, 206 for Sindh against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad 2021/22
Ollie Robinson, 206* for Kent against Worcestershire, Worcester 2022
Alistair Orr, 206 for Sussex against Somerset, Taunton 2022
Khalid Latif, 204* for Karachi Dolphins against Quetta Bears, Karachi 2008/09
Ali Brown, 203 for Surrey against Hampshire, Guildford 1997
Yashasvi Jaiswal, 203 for Mumbai against Jharkhand, Alur 2019/20
Alan Barrow, 202* for Natal against South Africa African XI, Durban 1975/76
Phil Hughes, 202* for Australia A against South Africa A, Darwin 2014
Travis Head, 202 for South Australia against Western Australia, Sydney 2015/16
Karanveer Kaushal, 202 for Uttarakhand against Sikkim, Nadiad 2018/19
Vince Wells, 201 for Leicestershire against Berkshire, Leicester 1996
Ravi Bopara, 201* for Essex against Leicestershire, Leicester 2008
Sachin Tendulkar, 200* for India against South Africa, Gwalior 2009/10
Kamran Akmal, 200 for Water and Power Development Authority against Habib Bank Limited, Hyderabad 2017/18
Mitchell van Buuren, 200 for Gauteng against Western Province, Johannesburg 2018/19
Samarth Vyas, 200 for Saurashtra against Manipur, Delhi 2022/23