Rajiv Nayyar breaks World record

For over 40 years, record books have had Hanif Mohammad's name at the top of the list under the heading ``longest individual innings''. On Wednesday, Rajiv Nayyar made sure that he will take over at the top of the list when the next editions are out.

Pakistan's legendary opening batsman, famed for his impeccable technique, insatiable appetitite for runs and above all, his deep concentration had batted 970 minutes in a famous rearguard action which saw his team draw the first Test against West Indies at Bridgetown in January 1958. Hanif scored 337, then the second highest individual score in Test cricket behind Len Hutton's 364. His innings stretched from the third evening when Pakistan followed on, 473 runs behind, to the sixth evening when the match was virtually safe.

No one had come anywhere near overhauling the time Hanif had taken at the crease and it remained the longest individual innings in first class cricket - till Wednesday. Rajiv Nayyar, the Himachal Pradesh captain batted a total of 1015 minutes in scoring 271 in his team's drawn match against Jammu & Kashmir in the North Zone Ranji Trophy league game at Chamba. Incidentally, Chamba is the 31-year -old right hander's birthplace.

Nayyar's innings began on the second morning of the four day game. J & K were all out for 249 just before close of play on the opening day. Nayyar entered when the first wicket fell at 39 in the eleventh over. With Nishal Gaur (69), Nayyar added 146 runs for the second wicket off 66.4 overs. Gaur batted patiently for 312 minutes and faced 227 balls, hitting six fours. At close of play, Himachal Pradesh were 219 for three with Nayyar batting on 89. Incidentally both Nayyar and Gaur had scored centuries against J & K last season.

On the third day, Himachal continued to score runs slowly and Nayyar symbolised this. He batted the whole day for 81 runs raising his score to 170 and the team's total to 407 for six. By now he had already batted over eleven hours. His century incidentally was his 13th in the national competition in his 61st match (113 innings).

On the final day, Nayyar had two options. One was to declare and try for an outright victory. The second was to go for more personal records. He chose the latter and soon became the first Himachal batsman to get a double hundred. Wickets fell steadily at the other end but Nayyar just continued batting, put 250 behind him until finally his marathon knock ended when he was ninth out at 552 in the 250th over of the innings. He was bowled by Kanwaljit Singh for 271 for which he batted 1015 minutes - 16 hours, 55 minutes. He faced 728 balls and hit 26 fours and a six. His innings lasted almost three full days. Shortly afterwards the Himachal innings ended at 567 after 255.2 overs. In the remaining time, J & K scored 16 for one in five overs.