Rohit Sharma becomes first Indian cricketer to hit 300 Twenty20 sixes

Rohit Sharma added another feather to his illustrious cap on Friday when he became the first Indian cricketer to hit 300 sixes in T20s across all tournaments. Rohit achieved this feat en route to an unbeaten 24 in 15 balls that helped Mumbai Indians defeat Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in an IPL 2018 match at Indore.

The landmark moment came for the Mumbai batsman in the 17th over when he sent a delivery from Afghanistan tweaker Mujeeb Ur Rahman high into the stands. He added one more maximum later to take his tally of sixes to 301 at the end of the match.

Another feat
The match on Friday witnessed Rohit claiming another first as well. By remaining unbeaten during Mumbai Indians’ chase, he took his tally of unbeaten winning knocks to 17 in the IPL. This is a new IPL record. Earlier, Gautam Gambhir held the record with 16 such knocks. Out of these 301 sixes, the 31-year-old has hit 183 sixes in the IPL and 83 for the Indian cricket team. The rest of them have come in other T20 events - including Champions League T20 and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The record for hitting the most number of sixes in T20 belongs to ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle who has clobbered 844 maximums in the shortest version of the game so far. Gayle also tops the IPL chart for the most number of sixes with 290.

On Friday, Sharma and Gayle were up against each other. Gayle struck a 40-ball 50, which included two sixes, to power Kings XI Punjab to 174/6. Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis also shone for Punjab scoring a quick-fire 15-ball 29. In reply, Mumbai Indians started well with opener Suryakumar Yadav producing a superb half-century (57, 42b). Though they lost wickets at regular intervals, Krunal Pandya played a real blinder (31, 12 b) and took the side home in the company of skipper Rohit with one over to spare. The victory has kept the Mumbai-based side’s play-offs hopes alive. However, with only three victories from nine games, Rohit and his boys can’t afford any more slip ups.