Bhausaheb Babasaheb Nimbalkar (12 December 1919 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er who is remembered for his

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

of 443

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

in the

1948–49 Ranji Trophy The 1948–49 Ranji Trophy was the 15th season of the Ranji Trophy. Bombay won the title defeating Baroda in the final. The semi-final match between Bombay and Maharashtra was the highest-scoring first-class match of all time. A total of 2,376 ...

match between

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

and

Kathiawar Kathiawar (), also known as Saurashtra, is a peninsula in the south-western Gujarat state in India, bordering the Arabian Sea and covering about . It is bounded by the Kutch district in the north, the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest, and by the ...

. At the time, it was the second-highest score in the history of first-class cricket. It remains the Indian record and is also the highest score by a batsman who never played in

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

. Nimbalkar was a right-handed batsman whose career spanned the seasons from 1939/40 to 1963/64. He played for six first-class teams:

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city is named for its abundance of banyan ...

, Maharashtra,

Holkar The Holkars (pronunciation: �o(ː)ɭkəɾ were the ruling house of the Indore State of the Maratha Confederacy, and earlier held the rank of Subahdar under Peshwa Baji Rao I of the Maratha Empire. When the Maratha Confederacy began to we ...

Madhya Bharat Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramuk ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, and

Railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

. He was an occasional

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

and a right-arm

fast-medium Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also i ...

bowler.

Early life

Nimbalkar was born in

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Kolhapur is one of the most significant cities in South Maharashtra and has been a hub of historical, religious, and cultural a ...

.Bhausaheb Nimbalkar
CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 December 2023. He had his early education at the Model School in Kolhapur, and captained the school team at the age of 15.

Career

Debut

Nimbalkar joined

and, aged 19, made his first-class and

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy is a premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The teams representing regional and state cricket associations participate. BCCI ...

debut on 18–20 November 1939 against

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

at Baroda's Police Gymkhana Ground. Baroda won the match by 52 runs. They scored 127 and 166; Gujarat replied with 100 and 141. Batting in the lower middle order, Nimbalkar scored 6 and 27. He opened the bowling with Edulji Gai and took 3/16 and 1/36. His older brother, wicket-keeper

Raosaheb Nimbalkar Raosaheb Babasaheb Nimbalkar (1 December 1915 – 1 June 1965) was an Indian first-class cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper who occasionally bowled leg breaks. He played from 1934 to 1953, initially for Maharashtra and ...

, was also playing that match and the two often appeared alongside each other.

Record score in India

Nimbalkar moved to

and played for them until 1950/51. During the

, in the match against

on the Poona Club Ground, Nimbalkar scored 443

. At the time, Nimbalkar's innings was second only to

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...

's 452 not out (in 1929/30) as the world record for the highest individual innings in first-class cricket. Currently, the innings is the fourth-highest of all time, having been surpassed by those of Pakistani batting great

Hanif Mohammad Hanif Mohammad PP (21 December 1934 – 11 August 2016) was a Pakistani cricketer. He played for the Pakistani cricket team in 55 Test matches between the 1952–53 season and the 1969–70 season. He averaged 43.98, scoring twelve centu ...

(499 in 1958/59) and the greatest West Indian

Brian Lara Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely renowned as one of the greatest Batting (cricket), batsmen of all time. He holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest in ...

(501* in 1994). He was unable to break the record because, with the total standing at 826 for 4 at the lunch interval, the opposing captain, the Thakore Saheb of Rajkot, conceded the match to prevent embarrassment on the part of his team. Bradman sent a personal note to Nimbalkar saying that he considered Nimbalkar's innings better than his own.

Summary

Despite an impressive

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 56.72 in

matches, and his additional abilities as a wicket-keeper and a fast-medium bowler, Nimbalkar never played

during a first-class career that stretched from 1939–40 to 1963–64. He was named the Indian Cricketer of the Year in 1952/53.

Later years and death

Between 1976/77 and 1982/83, Nimbalkar's son, Suryaji Nimbalkar, played in twelve first-class matches for Railways and Maharashtra. Nimbalkar received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, the highest honour bestowed on a former player by the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

. He died in Kolhapur on 11 December 2012, the day before his 93rd birthday.

Notes

References

External links

*
Nimbalkar recalls Bradman's 'personal message'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nimbalkar, B. B. 1919 births 2012 deaths Baroda cricketers Holkar cricketers Indian cricketers 20th-century Indian sportsmen Madhya Bharat cricketers Maharashtra cricketers Sportspeople from Kolhapur Railways cricketers Rajasthan cricketers East Zone cricketers Central Zone cricketers West Zone cricketers Indian Starlets cricketers Wicket-keepers