The white floppy hat provided just a little relief from the blazing sun. Milind Gautam looked equally nervous as any other probable lined up for the Delhi Under-19 trials at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Friday afternoon, unsure if his ‘record’ knock on Thursday can bargain him a place in the squad.

On Thursday, the Class XI Commerce student had scored a whopping 241 runs in an inter-school 50-over tournament — an Indian batting record awaiting official confirmation. Batting at number three for Modern School-Barakhamba Road, the 18-year old right-hander hit 11 sixes and 28 boundaries in 130 balls against Laxman Public School on home ground in the sixth SPV-GC Mittal cricket tournament.

“It took me some time to come to terms with scoring a double hundred in 50 overs,” he said. “When I did, I started screaming and told everyone what I had achieved, but no one believed me — they all thought I was bluffing.

“I called up my father and he said, ‘good your team scored 241, how much did you score?’. I had to repeat that I had scored all those runs myself. Only after everyone saw the official scoresheet did they believe me.”

Replying to Modern School’s mammoth total of 466, Laxman Public School scored 213.

The knock had the selectors talking too. National junior selector and former India paceman Sanjeev Sharma said, “It’s an exceptional knock. The ground is big but to simply score that much means he’s an exciting talent.”

The innings, though, has just begun for the lad from Sonnet Club.