Dhanuka Pathirana Sets New Standard for Gooch Cricket

While everyone was going ga-ga over Dimitri Mascarenhas and his five sixes at the Kennington Oval, elsewhere in England, in an unheralded Twenty20 league match, a little known Sri Lankan was redefining the term murderous assault.

With the advent of the Twenty20 game, one has come to expect a bang-and-wallop mode of batsmanship. But for all the banging and walloping in the world, one wouldn't expect anyone to smash 277 runs in 72 balls. That is exactly what Dhanuka Pathirana, a relatively unknown first-class cricketer from Colombo, did in a Twenty20 match against Droylsden. Pathirana hit an incredible 29 sixes and 18 fours in his knock on what was described as 'not one of the smaller grounds in the league'. One shudders to think what he might have wrought on one of those smaller grounds.

Just to clarify matters, 277 in 72 balls translates into a strike rate of 384.72 per hundred balls. That in turn translates to almost 4 runs a ball for 12 overs straight. I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around these mind-bogglingly astronomical numbers. These numbers are so mind-bogglingly astronomical in fact, that they are boggling my mind even as I type. Even Shahid Afridi, in his most famous knock had scored at a measly strike rate of 255. And he got out for 102. Scoring 277 runs in 72 balls is well and truly stupendous.

In case you're still having trouble putting things into perspective, consider this. For years now I have been playing the 20 over format of the game on my computer, courtesy Gooch cricket (and variations thereof). However, even with tweaking the batting averages to 900-odd, and with carefully selected pie-throwers as opponents, I have never managed a score of over 200 with any batsman. And I have surely never maintained a strike rate of 384.72 for 12 overs straight. Dhanuka Pathirana has, with this most incredulous of knocks, set a new standard, not only for Twenty-20 batsmen, but also virtual cricketers worldwide.