The 40-year old veteran batsman Wasim Jaffer was bowled by the Rest of India bowler Sidharth Kaul on day three of the ongoing Irani Trophy. The dismissal occurred after Jaffer had scored 286 runs. In the course of this marathon innings, he broke a lot many records of the Indian domestic cricket.
One of the important records that Jaffer improved in his monumental effort was that of the highest individual score against the Rest of India team. He went past Surinder Amarnath’s score of 235 which was scored for Delhi in the 1980-81 Irani Trophy.
When asked about how it feels to lose the individual record, Surinder Amarnath’s reaction was one that of full of sportsmanship. His simple reply with a chuckle was “Records are meant to be broken, no?”.
Coming from a family of International cricketers, Surinder Amarnath’s reply was no surprise. His father Lala Amarnath was the first Test centurion in Test cricket for India. His brother Mohinder Amarnath was the Man of the Match of the magical 1983 World Cup final.
Surinder Amarnath himself was a very flamboyant and flashy left-handed batsman. His Ranji Trophy debut happened when he was just 15. He later scored a century on his Test debut for India against New Zealand at Auckland in 1976.
In the Irani Trophy fixture of the 1980-81 season, Surinder Amarnath played for the Ranji Trophy winners Delhi against the Rest of India (ROI) team that was almost as good as a Test team. ROI batted first and piled up a score of 507/9 dec.
Replying to this huge challenge, Amarnath went about his business calmly and finished with a magnificent score of 235 scored against the likes of Kapil Dev, Karsan Ghavri, Dilip Doshi and Shivlal Yadav. The innings took Delhi past the first innings score of ROI and won the Irani Trophy.
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Speaking to Sportstar about the current status of Irani Trophy, Amarnath said, “When we played against Rest of India, the side was almost a Test side. Apart from a couple of players, all were India regulars. It was tough to compete.”
Commenting on Jaffer, Amarnath was full of praise for the domestic giant. He further added, “I am extremely happy for Jaffer. I wish him all the success. It’s a great moment for him so, he must take things a bit easy and just enjoy every moment of it.”
