Ishan Kishan had already turned the Duleep Trophy final into his own stage by the time his body forced him to stop. Resuming on 111 at Chepauk on Monday, the East Zone captain crossed his maiden double-century in the competition and was eventually dismissed at 270. It was an innings large enough to swallow almost every other batting effort in a final, but not quite large enough to reach the number that has survived at the top for nearly four decades.
He went past Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s 266 to have the second-highest score in a Duleep Trophy final, but was 50 runs away from the record. No batter has ever scored more in a Duleep Trophy match, let alone a final. The record was created in 1987, when West Zone had piled up 444, powered by Anshuman Gaekwad’s 216.
North Zone’s answer turned the contest into something else. Their opener batted for 720 minutes, faced 471 deliveries and struck 30 fours and six sixes. By the time he was dismissed for 320, North Zone were on their way to 868, still the only 800-plus total in Duleep Trophy history. The match was drawn, but the first-innings lead gave North Zone the title.
There was another layer to the timing. India was hosting the 1987 World Cup, but the man compiling that 320 was not part of India’s squad. A year earlier he had looked like one of the country’s most exciting new batters. Now, while the biggest tournament in the sport was being played around him, he was answering his omission in domestic cricket. He finished that Duleep Trophy edition with 659 runs, another tournament record.
The batter was Raman Lamba, and the distance between what he achieved in Indian domestic cricket and how little of him survives in modern memory is remarkable. Kishan’s 250 has unexpectedly pulled one of his greatest records back into the light.
‘There was one time when he scored a triple-hundred in a Duleep Trophy game and was so devastated after getting out that he smashed a glass pane in the dressing room. Years later, though I couldn’t quite gather up the courage to ask him about that incident, I did ask about how he reacted to getting a triple-century. Unbelievable as it might sound, he was gutted to have missed the opportunity to score a quadruple-century, which he thought would have made a huge difference to his career. I grew up listening to these stories of his insatiable hunger for runs, and the ruthlessness with which he analysed his game, often undermining his achievements in the process’, Aakash Chopra observed in a coloumn on ESPN Cricinfo.
From Player of the Series to the fringes
Lamba’s India career had begun almost absurdly well. After returning from the 1986 tour of England without playing an international, he made 64 off 53 balls on ODI debut against Australia at Jaipur. In the same six-match series came 74 at Delhi and 102 at Rajkot. Lamba finished with 278 runs at 55.60, more than anyone on either side, and was named Player of the Series as India won 3-2.
That beginning suggested a long international career. Instead, Lamba played only four Tests, scoring 102 runs, and 32 ODIs, where he made 783 runs. His final India appearance came in 1989, when he should still have been entering his prime. Domestic cricket kept revealing what India had moved beyond. Lamba finished his first-class career with 8,776 runs at 53.84, including 31 centuries. His 320 was not even his only triple-century; he later made 312 for Delhi against Himachal Pradesh. In 1996-97, aged 37, he topped the Ranji Trophy run charts with 1,034 runs in 10 matches at 73.86, including 250 against Punjab.
His career also carried controversy. In the 1990-91 Duleep Trophy final, a confrontation with pacer Rashid Patel spiralled into one of Indian domestic cricket’s ugliest scenes. Patel uprooted a stump and went after Lamba after an exchange between the pair. Patel was barred until March 1992, while Lamba was suspended until the end of 1991. A Delhi High Court judgment arising from Lamba’s challenge later recorded that he too had played a role in provoking the confrontation.
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A second cricketing life, and a devastating end
Long after India moved on, Lamba kept finding places where his cricket mattered. He became a major overseas professional in Northern Ireland and later represented Ireland four times in 1990. Bangladesh became another home, where he was a popular club cricketer before the country achieved Test status.
That second life is where his story ended. On February 20, 1998, while playing for Abahani against Mohammedan in Dhaka, Lamba was sent to forward short leg. Accounts from those around him recalled that a helmet was offered but he did not take it because only three balls remained in the over. Mehrab Hossain then pulled a ball fiercely into Lamba’s head. The impact was so hard that it rebounded to wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud, who completed the catch.
Lamba got up and walked from the field without assistance. Aminul Islam later recalled asking if he was all right. Lamba’s reply was chilling: “Bulli, I think I am dead.” His condition deteriorated, internal bleeding was discovered and he slipped into a coma. Three days after the blow, on February 23, Raman Lamba died in Dhaka. He was 38.
Kishan‘s 250 will go down as one of the great modern Duleep Trophy final innings. But it has also reopened a record book to a number that has refused to move since 1987. Behind that 320 is not merely an old statistic, but a batter who arrived for India as a Player of the Series, was left out of a home World Cup, dominated domestic cricket deep into his thirties and built a second career abroad before the game took him in the most tragic way imaginable. Nearly 39 years later, Raman Lamba’s 320 is still waiting for someone to pass it.
