Shan creates history in county championship

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LAHORE: Pakistan’s experienced opener Shan Masood’s bat is plundering runs as he pinned his name in the record book when he became the first Derbyshire batsman to have hit successive double centuries in his two innings in the county championship.

The 32-year old left-handed batsman scored 219 off 268 balls with 26 fours and one six for Derbyshire against Leicestershire on Friday in the county championship match following 239 in his previous innings against Sussex, also becoming the first Pakistani batsman to have scored two successive double centuries in the county championship.

Masood has so far scored 608 runs in his four innings of the county championship. Masood is also the second batsman of Pakistan to do so in the first-class cricket after Arshad Pervez  who had amassed 243 against Balochistan and 236 against MCB in the BCCP Patron’s Trophy in 1978.

The last time any Asian batter was able to score back-to-back double centuries in the county championship was before partition, in 1933, when Nawab Iftikhar Uddin scored 231 and 224 in 1933 for Worcestershire.

Through Masood’s heroics Derbyshire scored 531 all out in their first innings in response to Leicestershire’s total of 213. Leicestershire were facing an innings defeat on Saturday as they were struggling at 146-6 in their second innings, still needing 173 more to avoid an innings defeat.