Sushil Nadkarni, the Texas based former India U-19 international and Ranji cricketer smashed several records on his way to 223 even as he propelled Central West to a spectacular victory over a hapless Central East team in the Western Conference championship.

Sushil Nadkarni, the Texas based former India U-19 international and Ranji cricketer smashed several records on his way to 223 even as he propelled Central West to a spectacular victory over a hapless Central East team in the Western Conference championship.

North West lost by a heavy margin to South West but still scraped through to the National Tournament on higher NRR.

On his way to his double century, Sushil surpassed the highest ODI score of 194, by Pakistan's Saeed Anwar against India in Chennai, and then passed his own previous high watermark of 214 as he reached 223 before he was felled by Saminda Siriwardena, caught by Subash Karri.

Of course, Sushil's strike rate (his 223 came off 102 balls) was much higher than even Saeed Anwar's whose 194 came off 146 balls in the ODI.

Sushil also went past Greame Pollock's 222, the second highest List A 50-over tally, and looked like a sure bet to knock out the current record holder, Alistair "Ali" Duncan Brown of Surrey County Cricket Club, who scored 268 against Glamorgan in a 50 over fixture.

Sushil's score is clearly a USA domestic record. However, the Western Conference is considered a minor cricket fixture and not a List A tournament despite it being a 'major domestic competition.' Talking about Sushil's record, Peter Griffiths, who sits on the ACS List A subcommittee said, "List A does not include any domestic competition in an associate member country like USA, so this would not qualify as List A." Had it been a full member country, even Zimbabwe, then it would have been one for the record books. "The problem with associate countries is that not many of them keep any records," he added. ACS briefly maintained List B and List C records but does not do that any more.

More food for thought, Sushil faced 58 fewer balls than Ali Brown who faced 160 balls for his 268. The '268 Bar' at the Oval cricket ground is named after Brown's inning.

Sushil Nadkarni's 22 sixes in the Western Conference match must surely be a new record as well. His tally is the highest number of sixes by an individual in any format at this level. Sushil also got 14 fours. In one over by Wahab Syed, Sushil scored 5 sixes (6.6.6.6.0.6).

An attacking opening batsman, Sushil Nadkarni was one of India's most promising young players in the 1990s, and playing at the U-19 level in one season (1994-95), he scored three hundreds and three fifties in eight innings averaging 99.00. He was selected for the U-19 tour of Australia. Sushil played six times for Maharashtra, but with no guarantee of a permanent place, he moved to USA for higher studies.

A super-massive innings like the once against CE is not a one-off occurrence for Sushil. In 2005, he scored 171 in one match and followed that up with a 214.

After a batting failure that saw Central West lose to North West in a very close encounter on Saturday, Sushil and his mates were unrelenting against Central East. They scored 420 for 8 in their 50 overs after choosing to bat. Rahul Kukreti was in great form as well hitting 68 and Charan Gowda scored 39 providing Sushil the support as they ran up the scorecard to stratospheric levels. Once done with reducing the leather to pulp, they bowled out Central East for just 127.

In the other match today between North West and South West, South West took the spotlight by defeating North West in a convincing fashion. Franklin Rose took 5 for 33 as his South West side ripped through North West for just 86 runs in 21.1 overs after setting a teasing target of just 190.

Here are representative scorecards.

Match: Central West vs Central East
Dates: 07/06/2008
Ground: Tom Bass B
Umpires: Nanda Kumar and Hemant
Posted by: Shaheed Faiz

Central West Batting:

Sushil Nandkarni c Subash b Saminda 223
Damodhar Bhat b Wahab M 00
Orlando Baker lbw b Wahab S 17
Rahul K c Abhijit b Saminda S 68
Nadeem Haroon run out 28
Majid Rizvi c Subash K b Shahzad A 11
Andres Rowe c Hashim R b Mohit S 00
Carl Thompson b Shahzad 13
Charan Gowda not out 39
Vinod P not out 02
Sudarshan C DID NOT BAT
Extras: 19
Total: 420/8
Overs: 50

Central East Bowling:
Wahab Munir 7-0-45-1
Gautum B 5-0-29-0
Hashim Raza 6-0-67-0
Wahab Syed 5-0-57-1
Saminda S 10-0-53-2
Sandeep V 4-0-37-0
Mohit Saini 6-0-71-1
Abhijit Joshi 2-0-13-0
Shahzad A 5-0-38-2

Match: South West vs North West
Dates: 07/06/2008
Ground: Tom Bass A
Umpires: Massood and Sankar Rengannathan
Posted by: Shaheed Faiz

South West Batting:

Ritesh lbw b Vijay 30
Tarun c Nauman b Bilal 19
Mehul c Arjun b Saurabh 33
Aditya b Bilal 2
Ali b Vijay 4
Mandeep c Hassan b Srikant 35
F Rose b Saurabh 24
Jignesh c Srinivas b Saurabh 5
Mrunal not out 8
Elmore lbw b Saurabh 6
Hammad c Arjun b Bilal 7
Extras: 17
Total: 190/10
Overs: 39.2

North West Bowling:
Puneet 3-0-35-0
Bilal 7.2-1-38-3
Vijay 8-2-26-2
Nirosh 5-0-28-0
Saurabh 10-3-27-4
Amjad 1-0-20-0
Srikant 5-1-31-1

North West Batting

Hassan b Hammad 11
Srikant b F Rose 21
Nirosh b F Rose 2
Srinivas b F Rose 0
Arjun b F Rose 9
Nauman b F Rose 5
Puneet c F Rose b Jignesh 4
Vijay b Mehul 4
Saurabh b Jignesh 1
Amjad c Elmore b Jignesh 0
Bilal K not out 0

South West Bowling:
Franklin Rose 10-0-33-5
Elmore 3-0-20-0
Hammad 2-0-11-1
Aditya 1-0-7-0
Mehul 3-0-8-1
Jigdesh 2.1-1-3-3