World record feet by Hyderabad youngsters hailed

Hyderabad, Nov 16 (UNI) Records are meant to be broken, goes the sporting adage. India's little master Sachin Tendulkar and his southpaw colleague Vinod Kambli set a world record 18 years ago, in school cricket in Mumbai, by putting on 664 runs for the third wicket.

Playing for Sharada Ashram Vidya Mandir in 1987-88, Sachin (326) and Kambli (349) made history on February 23 adding 664 runs for third wicket in the Harris Shield inter-school cricket semis against St Xavier.

But the record has now been broken by two Hyderabad boys Mohd Shaibaz Tumbi and Manoj Kumar yesterday in the under-13 school cricket tournament conducted by Hyderabad Cricket Association.

Shaibaz and Manoj, playing for St Peters High School rewrote history by breaking the master batsman Sachin's and Kambli's record by putting on 721 runs for the first wicket.

The prodigies cracked triple centuries in the 40-over match.

Manoj made 320 off 127 balls with 46 fours, and Tumbi an unbeaten 324 off 116 deliveries with 57 fours.

Incidentally, this was the highest ever total by a team in any level of one-day cricket.

Chasing, an impossible task after being completely exhausted on the field, the opponents St Philips were skittled out for a meagre 21 runs. Off-spinner Moh Akram was on a song with the ball claiming seven wickets for just 11 runs.

Talking to UNI about the feat, former India off-spinner Arshad Ayub said it was a red letter day for Hyderabd cricket. It gave him immense pleasure. In fact, there was no dearth of cricketing talent in the country, he added.

He said ''If such boys are properly nurtured, it would do Indian cricket lot of good for the future.'' When asked what special advice he would like to give the two young cricketers, he said they should not get carried away by this phenomenal success, which was in fact unbelievable. They should keep cool and grab whatever opportunity comes their way.

Former Secretary of Hyderabad Cricket Association Man Singh said he was delighted. ''We should be proud of these little wonder kids. I hope if they keep going like this and sustain it in the years to come, India might have another Sachin and Kambli.'' UNI XR/DB AY RAI2107