Towhid Hridoy's 350 Breaks Bangladesh's First-Class Record
Six and a half years ago, Towhid Hridoy walked out in Potchefstroom as a teenager chasing a world title. He left with a World Cup winner’s medal and the promise of something bigger.
On Wednesday, he came back and cashed that promise in.
At the same NWC Oval where Bangladesh’s Under-19s stunned the world in 2020, Hridoy carved his name into cricket history with an unbeaten 350 for Bangladesh ‘A’ against South Africa ‘A’ — the highest first-class score ever by a Bangladeshi batter.
This was not just a big innings. It was a demolition.
A mountain of runs, and a pile of records
He started the fourth day on 204. South Africa ‘A’ had already felt the weight of his presence; by stumps, they had endured a full-scale epic.
Hridoy batted through, finishing 350 not out from 481 balls. Twenty-seven fours. Ten sixes. A statement, not just a scorecard entry.
In doing so, he surged past Tamim Iqbal’s unbeaten 334 and Raqibul Hasan’s unbeaten 313, wiping out two of the most cherished landmarks in Bangladesh’s domestic history. He became only the third Bangladeshi to score a triple hundred in first-class cricket, and the first to do it outside home soil.
The numbers kept stacking up. His 350 is now the highest first-class score by an overseas batter in South Africa. Across more than a century of first-class cricket in the country, only one man has ever gone higher in a single innings: Stephen Cook, with 390.
Bangladesh ‘A’ declared on 676 for eight, a massive reply to South Africa ‘A’’s 512. The visitors led by 164. The game, though, had run out of time. South Africa ‘A’ reached 18 without loss before both sides shook hands on a draw in the second four-day match of the series.
The series still belonged to the hosts. Their innings-and-413-run hammering of Bangladesh ‘A’ in the opening game in Pretoria sealed a 1-0 result. But the final word of the red-ball leg belonged to Hridoy.
Confidence, and a quiet warning
When the dust settled, Hridoy was clear about what this meant to him.
“To be honest this innings gave me a lot of confidence. After picking the Man of the Match trophy I was feeling that someday I will play an innings like this in the national team,” he said.
It was not a boast. It sounded more like a roadmap.
This was not a flat-track slog. This was a long, disciplined occupation in South African conditions, against an ‘A’ attack that had routed his side only days earlier. To bat 481 balls, to keep going past 200, 250, 300, then into the rare air beyond, demands more than timing and form. It demands intent.
For Bangladesh’s selectors, and for bowlers who will face him in the coming months, that intent is now on film.
Tamim’s record falls, and he applauds
When a national record goes, pride and nostalgia often mix. Tamim Iqbal, the former captain and now BCB president, did not try to hide either.
“Scoring a 350-run innings anywhere, at any level and in any context, is a remarkable achievement. But if that innings comes in South Africa, it has to be described as extraordinary,” he wrote on Facebook.
“They say records are meant to be broken. I am very happy that my record has been broken.
“Congratulations to Towhid Hridoy on making history. Becoming the first Bangladeshi batter to reach 350 is not just a personal achievement; it is also a symbol of the progress of cricket in the country.”
From the man whose 334 once set the bar, that is no small endorsement. It also frames Hridoy’s knock as more than a lone standout: a marker of how far Bangladesh’s batting has come, and how much further it might go.
From Potchefstroom past to Potchefstroom present
There is a symmetry to this story that Bangladesh cricket will cherish.
Potchefstroom was the cradle of a generation when the Under-19s lifted the World Cup. Names like Hridoy, who shone as a youngster there, were supposed to carry the senior side into a new era. Some have already done so. Some are still fighting for their place.
To return to the same ground and produce the greatest first-class innings by a Bangladeshi is more than coincidence. It feels like a chapter closing and another one opening, in the same South African town that first announced that generation to the world.
This time, there was no trophy to lift. Just a score that will sit in record books, and in dressing-room conversations, for years.
White-ball challenge up next
South Africa ‘A’ take the four-day series 1-0, but the tour is far from over. The sides now switch formats for a three-match one-day series, starting in Bloemfontein on September 6.
For Bangladesh ‘A’, the red-ball bruising in Pretoria and the red-ball brilliance in Potchefstroom tell two very different stories. The one-day leg will reveal which version turns up more often.
As for Hridoy, he leaves Potchefstroom again with history behind him. The next question is simple, and far bigger: how long before an innings like this arrives in Bangladesh colours at full international level?
