First Double Century in Twenty20 Cricket

The first double century of Twenty20 cricket has been hit, by who else, an Indian. Many thought this could not be done in Twenty20 cricket. But Criket is one sport where records have been known to fall like nine pins.

Hitting a double ton in Twenty20 cricket, whether it is in Twenty Twenty World cup or IPL Twenty20 or your local tournament is a big achievement. In Twenty20 matches any score around 200 by the whole team can be a match winning total. Same score coming from a single player is an incredible feat.

28-year old Sagar Kulkarni became the first batsman in the world to hit a Double Hundred (200) in a Twenty20 match with an astonishing 219 off 56 deliveries in a league game in Singapore.

Sagar's heroics helped his Marina Club team to 368 for 3 off their 20 overs and a mammoth victory.

Batting at the other end was his team-mate in the Singapore national side Dharmichand who says, "Sagar's most amazing shot was a six over extra-cover which went out of the Kallang ground into the netball courts." The boundaries were 65 yards either side of the wicket.

In total Sagar cleared the ropes eighteen times; (18*6=108) he also hit 23 fours(23*4=92). This means he scored two hundred runs just off the boundries. He did not open the innings, he went in at one down at the end of the second over.

“I’m known for ones and twos in regular cricket but I can play shots all around too but even I was shocked by the way I batted. It’s a great feeling and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be able to achieve this feat, especially when nobody in world cricket has done it” says Sagar (a native of Pune and Level II ACC/ACA certified coach).

Currently a Business Development Manager in a software firm he has been living in Singapore since 2002. He was formerly a Maharashtra U-22 player.Congratulations Sagar, you have set a new target of scoring a double century for the highly overpaid IPL T20 players.