Brian Lara is the only cricketer to breach the 400-run mark in Test cricket. He did it at the fag end of his career. But to achieve this unique at the U19 level is huge and that is what Karnataka's Prakhar Chaturvedi has done in the final of Cooch Behar Trophy, the annual four-day tournament for U19 cricketers, against Mumbai. The young batter smashed an unbeaten 404* in the first innings of the title clash to tumble records for fun during his knock.
Prakhar opened the innings for Karnataka and remained unbeaten till they declared as he faced a mammoth 638 deliveries while hitting 46 fours and three sixes. He is the first ever batter to score 400 runs in an innings in the final of Cooch Behar Trophy. On the back of his knock, Karnataka managed to amass a mammoth total of 890 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 223 overs in their first innings before declaring.
Interestingly, in the same match, India head coach Rahul Dravid's son Samit Dravid also featured scoring 22 runs off 46 balls while batting at number five. Harshil Dharmani was the other centurion in the innings smashing 169 runs off 228 balls with 19 fours and five sixes to his name. Prakhar stitched 290 runs with him for the second wicket and most importantly, added an unbeaten 163 for the ninth wicket with Samarth N before the innings was declared after he breached the milestone.
As far as the match is concerned, the final of the tournament was played at KSCA Navule Stadium. After opting to field first, Karnataka were on the backfoot as they conceded 380 runs in the first innings to Mumbai with opener Ayush Mhatre scoring 145 runs. Samit Dravid bowled for Karnataka picking up two wickets as well. However, everything got overshadowed once Prakhar Chaturvedi stepped out on the field as he carved out a niche for himself smashing 404 runs.
On the back of his knock, Karnataka took a huge lead of 510 runs in the first innings and soon after they declared on the fourth day, both teams decided to settle for a draw. As they took a first innings lead, Karnataka have been crowned the champions of Cooch Behar Trophy this season.
