Mumbai’s Parkar hits 252, joins elite list of debutants
MUMBAI: Suved Parkar walked into the history books on Tuesday when he became the 12th Indian to score a double century on debut during Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Uttarakhand in Alur, near Bengaluru.
Parkar’s knock of 252 is the fifth highest first-class score on debut, which helped Mumbai post a mammoth 647/8 declared. At stumps on Day Two, they had reduced Uttarakhand to 39/2. The 21-year-old also became only the second Mumbai batter, after coach Amol Muzumdar, to score a double ton on first-class debut. Muzumdar had scored 260 against Haryana in 1994, then the highest score on first-class debut.
Parkar’s knock came off 447 balls and was laced with 21 fours and four sixes. The highlight of his knock was the 124 singles he took to keep rotating the strike. The Mumbai No 4 batter stitched partnerships of 267 runs for the fifth wicket with Sarfaraz Khan (153—205b, 14x4, 4x6) and 106 runs for the sixth wicket with Shams Mulani (59—82b). It was Sarfaraz’s third century in four matches this season.
Parkar thus becomes another addition to the long list of impressive players groomed by coach Dinesh Lad at Swami Vivekanand International School (SVIS), Gorai. Rohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Dinesh’s son Siddhesh and Harmeet Singh are among the other prominent players.
“What he has achieved today is beyond happiness. I’ve no words to express it,” said an ecstatic Lad. “Since school days, once set he is used to converting those starts into big knocks. The stage he has reached today is because of dedication. He is very sincere and I have never seen him miss a training session. In fact, he keeps pushing me to conduct extra sessions,” Lad said.
Parkar was excluded from the Mumbai team for the Under-25 One-day tournament. Instead of sulking, he channelled his energy towards preparing for the red-ball season. The hard work has paid off.
Before his double ton on Tuesday, he had scored six centuries across various tournaments this year. Two came for Mumbai in the Under-25 Col CK Nayudu Trophy, which they won. He was Mumbai’s topscorer in the tournament with 601 runs in six matches at an average of 52.67. He hit three centuries in Times Shield ‘A’ Division while playing for Jain Irrigation and scored a century in the Shalini Bhalekar Trophy under-25 selection tournament.
“He wasn’t getting runs before the Times Shield, so he went back to basics. He batted for long hours in the nets, got his confidence back and it helped him when the red-ball season started,” said Lad.
It was a proud moment for his parents Vijay and Madhavi who always wanted someone in the family to take up sports. Parkar’s mother was a national level kho-kho player while his maternal uncle Sunil More has played Ranji for Mumbai.
“He always did well while playing cricket so we also encouraged him. He first used to train at Mandapeshwar Civic Federation under Nagesh Thakur, who used to make him play under-19 matches when he was 11-12 years old. He then moved to SVIS and trained under Lad sir, who worked hard on him,” said Vijay.
Lad, who has an eye for spotting talent, remembers the day when he first saw Parkar play. “What attracted my attention was that for a player of his age (Parkar was eight), he was watching the ball closely and looked comfortable while playing compared to other players of his age,” said Lad.
Lad then advised Parkar’s parents to let him focus on cricket. A few years later, he took him under his wings and he has never looked back since. Brief scores: Mumbai 647/8 decl (S Parkar 252, S Khan 153). Uttarakhand 39/2; Karnataka
253 & 100/8 (S Kumar 3/32).
Uttar Pradesh 155 (R More 3/47); Bengal 577/5 (S Gharami 186, A Majumdar 117) vs Jharkhand; Punjab 219. Madhya Pradesh 238/2 (S Sharma 102*) at stumps on Day 2.