On Monday, Maharashtra batter Ruturaj Gaikwad became the first in the history of the white-ball game to achieve the landmark.
Playing in the quarterfinal fixture of the VJHT, Gaikwad smashed Uttar Pradesh left-arm spinner Shiva Singh for seven consecutive maximums, including one of a no-ball, to fetch a record not achieved by anyone else in the List A game before.
The great feature of Gaikwad’s feat was how tall he stood on top of the spinning ball on a dryish surface in Ahmedabad and hit Singh down the ground for each of his sixes, showcasing brute hitting skills against his favourable match-up in what was a game-transforming 49th over of the quarterfinal.
Already batting set on a tremendous 165 not out off 147 balls, the right-hander unleashed his wrath on the hapless UP spinner, who simply had no safe response to put a leash on Gaikwad in the mood to destroy the opposition attack at the death. By the end of the over, Gaikwad had surpassed the 200th mark, making his maiden List A double hundred.
The BCCI captured Gaikwad’s successive maximums in a clip posted during the VJHT knock-out game on Monday, which was cherished by fans, who couldn’t help but laud the Maharashtra and India batter’s performance under pressure.
The 43-run over that Gaikwad absolutely hammered Singh for also fetched him the record for the joint most expensive over in competitive cricket. Previously the record was held by the Northern Districts duo of Brett Hampton and Joe Carter in New Zealand during a List A game back in 2018. They combined to smash 43 runs off an over versus Central Districts, with Hampton hitting 23 and Carter making 18 runs in an over that included a couple of no-balls as well.
The record for the most number of sixes hit in an over, however, stayed with former New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Lee Germon despite Gaikwad’s incredible feat. He holds the proud record of hitting a jaw-dropping eight sixes in a single over way back in the 1989-90 domestic first-class season. The mindboggling fact about Germon’s feat is that the over went for 77 runs, including 17 no-balls.
In international cricket, there have been four male batters to have struck six maximums in an over, with the elite list featuring South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs, Indian maverick Yuvraj Singh, former West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard and USA’s Jaskaran Malhotra. Among these, Gibbs and Yuvraj achieved their feat at a major World Cup.
While Gibbs hammered his six sixes during a 2007 50-overs World Cup group stage fixture versus Netherlands, Yuvraj smashed his way to the perfect 36 during a critical Super 8 encounter of the inaugural men’s T20 World Cup in South Africa against England the same year.
Coming back to Gaikwad, the youngster would’ve been extremely satisfied with his efforts for the day as he blazed his willow to a superlative 220 not out off 159 deliveries, including 10 fours and 16 sixes. The 25-year-old recorded his highest List A score and took his Vijay Hazare Trophy season tally to 384 runs after three innings at an eye-catching strike-rate of 118.51.
Gaikwad’s knock almost singlehandedly took Maharashtra to a winning score of 330/5 after 50 overs in an innings where the next highest score was 37 made by both Ankit Bawne and Azim Kazi. A year before the 2023 World Cup on Indian shores, Gaikwad strengthened his claims with an incredible knock.
