Ruturaj Gaikwad hit a world record seven sixes in the 49th over of Maharashtra's Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final against Uttar Pradesh in Ahmedabad, on Monday. In the process, Gaikwad also carried the bat and finished on an unbeaten 220, also a record in List A cricket.
The record came in the 49th over of Maharashtra's innings after they were put into bat by Uttar Pradesh. Batting on 165 off 147 balls, Gaikwad carted slow left-arm bowler Shiva Singh for seven consecutive sixes, with the fifth ball being bowled again on account of Singh overstepping. Between long on and deep midwicket, each of the seven sixes came off clean cricketing hits as Gaikwad cleared his front leg to swing through his arc. End of the over, he had raced to 207 off 154 balls. Maharashtra finished on 330/5.
With this feat, Gaikwad becomes the first batter in limited-overs cricket to score 43 runs in an over. Only once before in List A cricket has 43 runs been scored in an over, by Northern Districts' Joe Carter and Brett Hampton against Central Districts in Hamilton, in 2018. Gaikwad finished with 16 sixes, equaling Jaskaran 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.
{{/usCountry}}With this feat, Gaikwad becomes the first batter in limited-overs cricket to score 43 runs in an over. Only once before in List A cricket has 43 runs been scored in an over, by Northern Districts' Joe Carter and Brett Hampton against Central Districts in Hamilton, in 2018. Gaikwad finished with 16 sixes, equaling Jaskaran 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.
{{/usCountry}}But Gaikwad's more illustrious achievement now, and for a considerable time in future as well, is heading the list of cricketers to have hit most sixes in one over. Sir Garfield Sobers, Ravi Shastri, Herschelle Gibbs, Yuvraj Singh, Ross Whiteley, Hazratullah Zazai, Leo Carter, Kieron Pollard and Thisara Perera have all hit six consecutive sixes in an over in different formats. Gaikwad has just gone one six ahead of them.