LUKE Ronchi – who spent three seasons in the Southern Premier League with Bashley – is the toast of the New Forest club after writing a new chapter in cricketing world history.

Ronchi and Grant Elliott set a new one-day international record sixth-wicket partnership of 267 to help New Zealand beat Sri Lanka in Dunedin on Friday.

The pair had come together with the score on 93 for five and took it to 360, with Ronchi cracking an undefeated 170 from 99 balls – his maiden ODI century – while Elliott finished on 104.

And although Tillakaratne Dilshan hit 116 in the Sri Lanka reply, they lost the fifth ODI by 108 runs to trail 3-1 in the seven-match series.

Ronchi and Elliott’s stand beat MS Dhoni and Mahela Jayawardene’s 218, set in 2007, while Indian Dhoni and Sri Lankan Jayawardene had set the previous best playing for an Asia XI against an Africa XI.

Born in New Zealand but raised mostly in Australia, Ronchi arrived at Bashley as a teenager in 1999 and rattled up six centuries, 16 half-centuries and just shy of 2,000 runs in two spells for the club.

He was also man of the match when they reached the Southern Electric twenty20 Cup final against Liphook & Ripsley at Northlands Road in 2000.

Ronchi had moved with his family to Perth at the age of seven and debuted for Western Australia in 2001-02.

He established himself as a solid wicket-keeper and clean striker of the ball and, in 2006-07, made his mark with the fastest century in Australian domestic one-day history. His 56-ball ton against New South Wales eclipsed the 62-ball record set by team-mate and former Bournemouth man Adam Voges two seasons previously.

Perhaps his most remarkable display was in a 2007-08 Pura Cup match against Queensland when he scored a 51-ball century, with the second 50 coming off just 11 deliveries.

At that stage, Australia were keen to call Ronchi their own but, several years later, New Zealand were equally pleased to claim his services.

He earned a call-up to the New Zealand ODI side in 2013 and debuted against England, becoming the first man since Kepler Wessels nearly 20 years earlier to represent two full ICC member nations.