Gaikwad hits 7 sixes in over for world record
KOLKATA: If you thought six sixes in an over was the zenith of batting dominance, think again. Ruturaj Gaikwad has now raised the bar by hitting a record seven sixes against Uttar Pradesh slowleft arm bowler Shiva Singh— including one off a no-ball—in Ahmedabad on Monday and becoming the first batter in limited-overs cricket to score 43 runs in an over.
Only once before in List A cricket have 43 runs been scored in an over, but by two cricketers—northern Districts’ Joe Carter and Brett Hampton against Central Districts in Hamilton, in 2018. Gaikwad also carried his bat to finish on an unbeaten 220—the 39th double hundred in List A cricket, and the fifth-highest score by an Indian in the format—in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final that Maharashtra won by 58 runs.
The record for the most number of sixes in an over across all formats is held by a former New Zealand wicket-keeper batter
Lee Germon who had struck eight sixes for Canterbury in a highly suspicious over that included 17 no-balls and cost 77 runs, in a first-class game against Wellington during the 1989–90 season.
In international cricket, only four players have hit six sixes in an over—south Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs, India’s Yuvraj Singh, West Indies’ Kieron Pollard and USA’S Jaskaran Malhotra. Other cricketers to have hit six sixes in different domestic formats are Sir Garfield Sobers, Ravi Shastri, Ross Whiteley, Hazratullah Zazai, Leo Carter, and Thisara Perera.
On Monday, Gaikwad finished with 16 sixes, equalling Malhotra, Soumya Sarkar, AB de Villiers and Rohit Sharma on the list of most sixes in a List A individual innings, behind Eoin Morgan and Namibia’s Gerrie Synman (17) and D’arcy Short who had hit 23 sixes for Western Australia against Queensland in 2018. Gaikwad’s flourish came pretty late, in the 49th over after Maharashtra were put in to bat by Uttar Pradesh.
Quarter-final brief scores:
Maharashtra 330/5 in 50 overs (R Gaikwad 220). UP 272 in 47.4 overs (A Juyal 159; R Hangargekar 5/53). Maharashtra won by 58 runs; Punjab 235 in 50 overs (A Sharma 109; V Kaverappa 4/40). Karnataka 238/6 in 49.2 overs (R Samarth 71).
Saurashtra 293/8 in 50 overs (H Desai 61, C Jani 52 not out). Tamil Nadu 249 in 48 overs (R Sai Kishore 74; C Jani 3/53).
Saurashtra won by 44 runs;
J&K 350/7 in 50 overs (H Nazir
124, S Khajuria 120). Assam 354/3 in 46.1 overs (R Parag 174, R Das 114*). Assam won by seven wickets.