Chad Bowes, the cricketer from New Zealand, has now set a new landmark by achieving the fastest double century in List A cricket ever. Bowes, during the course of his innings in a Ford Trophy match between Canterbury and Otago, made his first double century in the format in just 103 balls. He thus surpassed the earlier record of the fastest double century in List A cricket which was 114 balls and was held by N Jagadeesan and Travis head.
An opening batsman Bowes made 27 boundaries and hit the roof 7 nested inside Apart from 110 balls in which she managed to score 205 before being dismissed LBW. Thanks to such an incredible performance from Bowes, Canterbury managed to make a score of 343 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 50 overs. The second highest run contribution in their innings was that of no.8 batter Zakary Foulkes who scored 49 not out in 46 balls.
Here’s the astonishing fact, when Bowes scored 200, the score of Canterbury was 257/5. This made its toll on the effort with the 32-year-old needing some treatment for back-related issues on one or two occasions during his time on field.
In men’s cricket, Bowes became the third batter from New Zealand to have scored two hundred after Jamie How (222 in Ford Trophy 2013) and Martin Guptill (237* in 2015 ODI World Cup).
Before playing cricket for New Zealand, Bowes played for South Africa at an U-19 level, leading juniors including Quinton de Kock and Theunis de Bruyn during the 2012 junior world cup.
He settled in New Zealand in 2015 for a new lease in life, as he had not been able to find sufficient openings to further his playing career in South Africa.
The move however was not in vain as he made his debut at the international stage for New Zealand in March 2023. He has so far featured in six ODIs and 11 T20Is, aggregating 286 runs at a score of 2 fifties in the process.
“Probably not that script that I thought I was going to write for my career, but it has been a hell of a journey from South Africa to New Zealand,” Bowes told ESPNcricinfo ahead of his New Zealand debut last year.
