World record holder Nero targets World Cup

Fresh from rewriting the history books, Australian cricket's newest world record-breaker wasted little time on setting his next goal with a World Cup looming.

Australian Blind Cricket opener Steffan Nero made history this week with an unbeaten 309 from just 140 balls in Brisbane at the Commonwealth Bank International Cricket Inclusion Series.

He achieved the feat in the opening ODI of the Inclusion Series, having already smashed centuries in the two proceeding T20 internationals, all against New Zealand.

"It's a dream in itself to play for Australia so to make a century for Australia is one of those lifelong memories you will never forget," Nero said.

"It's good to reflect and to celebrate but also to evaluate how am I going in terms of a player, because at the end of the day, my eventual goal is to try and score good runs against the best teams in the world, which is India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka."

Nero's innings surpassed the previous record of 264 not out, which had been set by Pakistan's Masood Jan at the Blind Cricket World cup back in 1998.

Subcontinent teams have long set the benchmark for blind cricket but Nero is helping Australia close the gap, with the next Blind World Cup to be held later this year in India, when the left-handed opener will get to test himself against those top teams.

Ten nations play Blind cricket, a game that is largely played in the same manner as the conventional game, but with a few key modifications.

The ball is made of hard plastic, and it rattles or rings when it is moving, and the stumps are metal (to generate more noise).

A playing XI is made up of a mix of players from three categories of vision impairment: B1 players are those deemed totally blind (there must be four in the playing XI), B2 players have a field of vision of five degrees or less (three in the XI), and four B3 players can have a field of vision up to 20 degrees.

Nero was born with congenital nystagmus, a condition that causes involuntary eye movements. A promising junior cricketer, his deteriorating vision forced him to give up the game at age 10.

He soon discovered blind cricket, where he was deemed a category B3 partially sighted player.

Nero was the youngest member of Australia's squad at the Blind T20 World Cup in 2017, but the 2018 World Cup would be Australia's last international due to a combination of scheduling shortfalls and the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the first time I’ve played an ODI in a while," Nero said.

“It got difficult at stages. There were times when I was getting quite tired, mentally as well, and I thought I was going to get out.

"It's a big mental strain concentrating I imagine for any fully sighted person for that length of time. But with vision impairment, we have to expend a lot more energy to concentrate, especially if the ball is moving around, and the glare, it's really hard."

"That's one thing I think a lot of people don't realise is obviously the mental aspect of just straining your eyes for that period of time can be quite taxing.

“But no matter who we are playing, we always like to put in 100 per cent and put the Australian spirit on show. All we really want to do is play cricket.”

Five years ago, Cricket Australia recruited some of Pakistan's top coaches to come and teach the Australians the subcontinent style of batting, a method dominated by sweep shots.

All bowling is underarm – making the sweep shot a particularly effective method if it can be mastered – and deliveries must bounce at least twice before reaching the batter.

Nero was an avid student of the Pakistan coaching, and his efforts paid off in stunning fashion in what was the Australian blind team's first international since 2018, including a rare six in the blind format.

"One of my strengths is my reverse (sweep), I've built that up over the years, just playing that reverse sweep all the time.

"But it was definitely a shock when it went over the for the boundary for six! I was very happy about that.

"But I was also annoyed because I'm like 'stop hitting the ball in the air'. When you face the best nations in the world, they'll most likely catch you if you do hit that in the air to them.

"It was definitely a moment where I thought 'wow, okay, that was a good hit, keep going'."

Nero hit 49 fours as well as the six to help Australia score 2-542 off the 40 overs, before backing up as the side’s wicketkeeper to complete five run-outs in a big 270-run win.

The two teams will meet again on Friday.