On Friday, in a Ranji Trophy match between Hyderabad and Arunachal Pradesh, the former ended up scoring a mammoth 529/1 in 48 overs, after the visitors were bundled out for only 172. Opener Tanmay Agarwal played world record-breaking innings of 323 no from 160 balls, while skipper Rahul Singh chipped in with 185. Hyderabad is currently scoring at a rapid pace of 11.02 rpo, that is unheard of.
But just to give a brief scorecard of this monumental effort won’t suffice. A solid perspective is needed, as to what it really means, to be scoring at that rate.
Highest Run-rates Ever
While it might be impossible to track all the first-class games, let’s filter out the search to international games — Tests, ODIs and T20Is. Rest assured, there aren’t many teams, who have come close to scoring at 11.02 rpo.
Let’s start with Tests. The highest-ever run-rate achieved in an innings, in a Test was 6.5. In December 2022, England’s Bazball was at full display, as they scored 657 runs in 101 overs, vs Pakistan, in Rawalpindi. The second-best is 5.8, where Australia scored 296 against South Africa in 1902.
ODIs No Match as Well
Guess, what would be the highest run-rate in an ODI? 10, not even that. The record stands at 9.96 by England vs Netherlands in 2022, where they smashed 498/4 in their 50 overs. The next best is also England, 9.62 vs Australia in 2018. They ended up scoring 481/6 in their 50 overs.
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Hyderabad Innings Comparable to T20Is
The best of T20I innings are close to as good as the feat achieved by Hyderabad. Though the highest run-rate in the shortest-format is 15.7 by Nepal, against Mongolia at the Asian Games, a run-rate of 11.02 is also not seen that easily in T20Is. Imagine, if Hyderabad was playing a T20 match, at scored at the same rate, they would have ended up getting 220-221 runs in their innings.
While, Hyderabad’s innings is not over yet, and they might or might not surpass this rate as well, but they have certainly done something that is unheard of, especially in a first-class game.
