Heads up as Rahul Vashishta hits one of his 14 sixes

The Newfoundland Summer League usually has to wait until June to start, due to the challenging climate and late Spring (there was a frost warning for St. John’s this week, and the leaves only appeared on the trees in the last 10 days). It got off to a record breaking start as Rahul Vashishta smashed a 77 ball 161*, the highest score in Newfoundland cricket history. Since the Summer League restarted in 2011, the highest score of four centuries made was 108 in 2015. PJ Myler in his 1915 book “Recollections of Cricket in Newfoundland” lists only two hundreds, 108 by Lieutenant Rowe, and 104 by TC Fitzherbert both in the 1890s. After the Avengers had lost their first wicket on 9, Rahul Vashishta and Rahul Roy put on 202 (almost certainly also a record), and the final total of 246 for 1 wicket is the highest total in the Summer League since its inception in 2011.
Rahul started with two singles from the first six balls he received, but then took only 12 more balls to reach his 50, hitting four consecutive sixes. He hit fourteen sixes in all, mostly in the arc between long on and square leg, but also a couple over covers, and some long straight hits. He faced just 77 balls in all. Rahul’s innings in full was :-
…1..1611264666614..1.416.1.1.1.6……6.6..66.66.1…111..1421411144.12
Scorecard

This is likely the last match to be played on the Nottsport roll out wicket; construction for a new pitch starts on Monday, in preparation for the Eastern T20 tournament in July.