Samit Gohel, Gujarat’s opening batsman, has scored 359 not out against Odisha in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final and now after this splendid performance, he owns the record of scoring the highest score by an opening batsman.
Samit played 723 balls in his innings which included 45 fours and one six; the total score of Gujarat was 641. He also broke the 117-yr old record of Bobby Abel who played Surrey and scored 357 runs at The Oval in 1899, against Somerset.
#RanjiTrophy
Gujarat opener #SamitGohel (359 not out) creates world record for highest individual score by an opener in 1st Class cricket pic.twitter.com/y93k8d61uw— nnis (@nnis_sports) December 27, 2016
As per TOI, Samit has also become the fourth batsman in first-class cricket to score triple century and remain not out. Samit told PTI after his innings,
“I did not know it was a World Record. The idea was to bat as long as possible. Coach sir (Vijay Patel) and Parthiv bhai (skipper Parthiv Patel) ne bola thaa lamba khelo. I just tried to do that. I am happy that I could bat this long. Obviously this is the greatest day of my life. I am actually still not able to express myself.”
He further talked about his family and future plans,
“My father has a small-time property business. Not very big. Till date, I have only concentrated on cricket. But yes, I am searching for a government job. I have applied for sports quota job in Income Tax department as well as Dena Bank. Let’s see what happens.”
Gujarat is into the semi-final of Ranji Trophy. Undoubtedly, the expectations from Samit have reached sky high now and we wish him all the best for his future!
