20-year-old England batter showed exemplary resilience to break the record held by former England opener and current batting coach Marcus Trescothick. Finlay Bean, who is a former England Under-19 player, stayed in the middle for as long as 712 minutes (nearly 12 hours) to score 441 runs from 518 deliveries in a Second XI Championship clash against Nottinghamshire.
Bean's marathon knock was laced with as many as 52 fours and three sixes. Bean opened the innings for Yorkshire and shared an opening partnership of 286 runs with skipper James Wharton. He reached his century from 135 deliveries. He took another 141 deliveries to reach his double hundred.
He helped Yorkshire side post 814/7 before declaring. Wharton and wicketkeeper-batter Harry Duke contributed with their respectively centuries as well. The score of 814/7 is also the highest team total in Second XI Championship cricket.
The previous record was created by Trescothick in 1997. The Somerset opener scored 322 runs in a second XI game against Warwickshire. Trescothick went on to represent England in 76 Tests and 123 ODIs including 26 international centuries and 50 half-centuries.
Yorkshire's second-team coach Tom Smith was all praises for the youngster as he said in a statement, "Finlay's batted brilliantly. It's not just his skill that's been impressive, it's been his concentration levels as well. Personally, I’ve never seen 365 runs scored in a game before! It’s been outstanding."
"Second-team cricket is about creating opportunities, and someone like Finlay has taken his in this game," Smith added.
Currently, Bean does not have a Yorkshire contract as he left the club in 2020 before making a comeback in their second-team. However, he looks on track to make it to the senior side and make his First-Class debut. Earlier this month, Bean impressed in the T20 format as well with a quickfire unbeaten 72 against Nottinghamshire in a second-team T20.
