Dhaka, Dec 7 () Captain Rohit Sharma became the first Indian, and just the second batter world-wide, in international cricket to hit 500 sixes during the second ODI against Bangladesh, here on Wednesday.
Walking out to bat at No.9 after injuring his hand while in the field, Rohit put up a strong fight late in the run chase. He played a sensational knock (51 not out off 28 balls) with three fours and five sixes, to give India a chance but in the end, failed to get them over the line.
Rohit’s tally of 500 international sixes is bettered by only West Indies legend Chris Gayle, who has 533 sixes. No other Indian batter has more than 400 sixes. MS Dhoni with 359 sixes is the closest to Rohit among Indian players.
The likes of Shahid Afridi (476), Brendon McCullum (398), Martin Guptill (383) are the third, fourth and fifth place respectively in the list of most number of six hitters in international cricket.
Chasing a target of chase of 272, India were 65/4 before Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel put on a century stand to resurrect India’s innings. However, Iyer and Axar fell in quick succession and Shardul Thakur followed them too which brought Rohit to the middle. His half-century propelled India late in the run chase.
The Indian skipper brought the equation down to 12 runs needed off two balls and hit a six from there, but couldn’t find the boundary off the last ball as Bangladesh won by five runs.
avn/cs