Eight consecutive sixes, an 11-ball half-century, a triple hundred in just over three hours, a 1,008-run innings lead, and a winning margin of 725 runs. Over the past seven years, hordes of First-Class world records have come tumbling down by lop-sided pairings in the expanded Ranji Trophy pool involving fledgling teams from the Northeast.

For six years and 30 first-class matches, Akash Kumar Choudhary’s dreams were confined to the little-known cricketing world of Meghalaya, buried and beleaguered by defeats and more defeats. On Sunday, Akash vaulted over all of first-class cricket history spanning 250 years, etching a feat no man has ever achieved before in the game. A legendary band of Garry Sobers, Mike Procter, and Ravi Shastri were duly pulled down by Akash’s hour under the Surat s

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