Bengaluru, Jan 18 (IANS) Vidarbha opening batter Aman Mokhade etched his name into the record books on Sunday by becoming only the third cricketer in the history of the Vijay Hazare Trophy to score 800 runs in a single season. The milestone came during the final of the 2025-26 season against Saurashtra at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 1 in Bengaluru.

The 25-year-old right-hander reached the landmark during the 11th over of Vidarbha’s innings, having required just 19 runs at the start of the summit clash. Mokhade joined an elite list featuring Prithvi Shaw and Narayan Jagadeesan, both of whom had previously crossed the 800-run mark in a Vijay Hazare Trophy season.

Mokhade has enjoyed a great run in the tournament, highlighted by an unbeaten 138 in the semifinal against Karnataka earlier in the week. Although he had an opportunity to surpass Jagadeesan’s record for most runs in a single edition, the Vidarbha opener was dismissed for 33 off 45 balls in the final, finishing the season with 814 runs.

Former India batter Prithvi Shaw was the first to breach the 800-run barrier, scoring 827 runs for Mumbai in the 2020-21 edition. The record was later bettered by Tamil Nadu’s Jagadeesan, who amassed 830 runs in eight matches during the 2022-23 season.

Mokhade also equalled the record for most centuries in a single Vijay Hazare Trophy edition, finishing with five hundreds, a feat previously achieved by Jagadeesan and Karun Nair. He is set to end the 2025-26 season as the tournament’s highest run-scorer.

In addition, Mokhade continues to make records at the List A level. He is the joint-fastest batter in the world to reach 1,000 List A runs, achieving the mark in just 16 innings, alongside former South Africa great Graeme Pollock.

Mokhade is also the fastest Indian to reach the milestone, surpassing the previous record jointly held by Devdutt Padikkal and Abhinav Mukund, who took 17 innings.

–IANS

sds/bsk/