Indian schoolboy hammers 498 runs

A 13-year-old Indian cricketer has smashed 498 runs off 490 balls in a match in Mumbai to claim the national record for the highest score by a school boy.

Armaan Jaffer, nephew of former Indian Test opener Wasim Jaffer, achieved the feat in an under-14 Giles Shield match while playing for Rizvi Springfield School against IES Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya.

His marathon two-day innings, which finished on Wednesday, beat the previous leading individual score of 461 in Indian school cricket, set recently by Nagpur boy Ali Zorain Khan. "I had decided not to play any aerial shots," Armaan told the Hindustan Times. "I knew as long as I occupy the crease, the runs will keep flowing. It would have been better if I had got 500, but there is no grudge."

Jaffer cracked 77 fours in his eight-and-a-half-hour innings.His uncle, Wasim, scored 1,944 runs in 31 Tests with five centuries before playing his last match in 2008. MUMBAI, AFP