Bengal batsman Pankaj Shaw slams 413 in local league game

What a terrific Christmas it turned out to be for Bengal batsman Pankaj Shaw as the talented youngster smashed an unbeaten 413 in a local cricket league match in Kolkata on Sunday. Making his Ranji debut for Bengal only in the last season, the 28-year-old played the massive innings turning out for Barisha Sporting against the Dakshin Kalikata Sansad (DKS) in a three-day first division league tournament organised by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

The hard-hitting middle order batsman plundered the opposition bowlers all around the park and struck as many as 44 fours and 23 sixes during his monumental innings. Beginning the day’s play at 192/2, Shaw carried on from he left the previous day. Batting overnight on 44 the No.4 batsman shared a mammoth 203 run stand with Ajmer Singh for the 6th wicket and 191 with Shreyan Chakraborty for the 8th wicket. The Barisha Sporting Club piled on 708/8 before declaring their innings. The match was played at the Oxford Mission Douglas ground at Behala.

Put into bat, Dakshin Kalikata Sansad were bowled out for 369 in 114 overs and conceded a huge lead to Barisha who bagged four points. DKS were 96/2 after 20 overs in their 2nd essay and had to settle with a couple of points. Shaw made his first-class debut for Bengal against Rajasthan in October 2015. In his limited opportunities so far in the first class circuit, he has done justice to his reputation, though he hasn’t gone on to score the massive scores like here.

Till date he has played 12 first class matches and has scored 612 runs at a mediocre average of 30.65. His only century came against Madhya Pradesh at Mumbai earlier this year. He also has 6 half-centuries to his name.

Shaw has also appeared in 4 List A matches and 12 T20 matches. While he has scored 122 runs in his List A career so far with the highest being 68, he hasn’t been quite successful in T20s yet and has scored only 134 runs in 12 outings at an unimpressive average of 16.