Twelve-year-old Sarfaraz Khan was batting on 235 when stumps were drawn in his Harris Shield match on Monday evening. He spent a sleepless night, wondering if he could go past the 346 runs Sachin Tendulkar had scored in Mumbai’s inter-school cricket competition 21 years ago.

Sarfaraz’s father, Naushad Khan, is a local coach who has trained players like Iqbal Abdulla and Rahil Shaikh — both members of the Mumbai Ranji team — as well as left-arm fast bowler Kamran Khan, who came into spotlight in the IPL’s second season for the Rajasthan Royals. Many of them, at some point or the other, have stayed at Sarfaraz’s place.

“My father was telling me I should try and better Tendulkar’s score. I was already on 235, and as one of the boundaries at Cross Maidan is short, I felt it was possible,” Sarfaraz says.

He did better than that. By the time the Rizvi Springfield batsman was done tormenting the Indian Education Society (Kandivli) bowling attack, he had 439 runs against his name. His innings came off just 421 deliveries and included 56 boundaries and 12 sixes. It’s the highest score in the 112-year history of Harris Shield, breaking the 46-year-old record held by R Nagdev, who had scored 427 not out in 1963-64. Sarfaraz, incidentally, was dropped thrice — on 25, 253 and 302. He gave the fielders enough time to regret their errors.

The enormity of his achievement did not take long to sink, for word had spread around and a cluster of TV cameras and reporters had collected at the ground. For them, he managed to hide his exhaustion by summoning smile-on-demand.

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