Mumbai's schoolboy wonder Armaan Jaffer slams classy 473

Armaan Jaffer, nephew of one-time India opener Wasim Jaffer, broke the record for the highest score in Under-16 Harris Shield tournament with a classy 473. Jaffer, who plays for the Rizvi Springfield school, got the score against IES VN Sule Guruji in the final of the tournament. The 15-year-old batted for a total of 359 balls, hit 65 fours and 16 sixes in his marathon knock which lasted 437 minutes. And he and partner Siddharth Singh, who scored 177, also fell just 33 runs short of breaking the 664-run partnership record set by Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli in 1988. In 2010-11, Armaan had broken the record for the highest individual score in Indian school cricket. He had then made a 498 – just two agonising runs short of the magical 500-run mark. [caption id=“attachment_626423” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Jaffer broke the Harris Shield record.[/caption] He had then broken Sarfaraz Khan’s record – 439 runs, which was also scored in the Under-16 Harris Shield competition in the 2009-10 season - to claim the record. This was also a record that was once held by Armaan’s uncle, Wasim, who had made 403. Armaan, a right-hander, has shown that he likes scoring the big hundreds. His style has similarities with Wasim early on but is now starting to develop a personality of it’s own. His 498, for instance, has no sixes. But his innings on Thursday had as many as 16 sixes. In the semi-finals, Jaffer had scored a vital 263 to help his side recover from 30-6 against Anjuman (Urdu) and this knock only highlights how good his season has been. Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, former Mumbai captain Milind Rege said it’s time that the lad went up a step. “These are the runs which Tendulkar or Kambli used to score. It’s a tremendous performance and he will now have to be closely monitored,” Rege told Mirror. Rege also believes that it is time to push Jaffer into the Mumbai under-19 squad as well. “If he is successful there, then the selectors should look ahead. Even in club cricket, Armaan should be playing for the top teams.”