N Jagadeesan made the highest ever individual List A score of 277.
Arunachal put the wheels into motion after winning the toss and choosing to bowl first. They couldn’t pick a wicket until 416 runs had been added for the opening wicket with B Sai Sudharshan making 154 in 102 balls with 19 fours and 2 sixes to his name.
This 416-run stand between N Jagadeesan and Sudharshan is now the highest partnership for any wicket and opening wicket as well, beating 372 between Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels for West Indies.
Jagadeesan then hit his fifth consecutive century, becoming the first batter to do so in List-A cricket, and went on to hit a double century, his first. He was dismissed for 277 runs (25 fours, 15 sixes), the highest List-A score ever by an Indian, bettering Rohit Sharma’s 264 and highest List-A score ever, beating Ali Brown’s 268.
Tamil Nadu finished on 506/2, the highest-ever total by a team in List A history, making them the first to pass the 500-run mark.
In reply, Arunachal could only muster 71 runs with M Siddarth taking 5/12 and lost by a record 435 runs. They beat the record of 346 runs by Somerset who made 413/4 and restricted Devon to 67 runs in 1990.
Tamil Nadu's regular captain Dinesh Karthik, who is not playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy, in a series of tweets congratulated Jagadeesan for his record-breaking feat but posed a serious question about the current format.
"WORLD RECORD alert! What an amazing effort by @Jagadeesan_200. Couldn’t be happier for him. Big things await #5outta5Sai Sudarshan what an amazing tournament so far. This opening combo is killing it. Well done boys @TNCACricket #VijayHazareTrophy,” his first tweet read.
However, he posed serious questions about the format of the Vijay Hazare Trophy where North East teams clash with stronger teams.
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Karthik added: “Also on another side note. Does it make sense to have the north east teams play the elite teams in the league phase. It just topples the run rates of teams and imagine if a match against one of these teams gets rained off! Can’t they have a separate group and then qualify?”
The Vijay Hazare tournament features a round-robin format, which is followed by playoffs. A total of 38 teams, divided into five elite groups, take part in the competition.
Every group has at least one from the northeast region. So far none of the northeast teams have won a single match at the ongoing edition and are languishing at the bottom of their respective groups. Arunachal has played five matches and lost all of them now with the 435-run defeat to Tamil Nadu.