Indian skipper Rohit Sharma displayed his vintage avatar against Australia in the recently-concluded second T20I of the ongoing three-match series at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
In a rain-effected eight-over-a-side contest, Rohit’s batting heroics helped India chase down the target of 91 with four balls to spare. Rohit showed his intent as soon as he came on strike in the opening over. The 35-year-old took world No.1 T20I bowler Josh Hazlewood to the cleaners, smashing two back-to-back sixes in the first over.
On the third ball of the over, Rohit cleared his front leg and smacked the good length delivery over the deep mid-wicket region for a humungous 90-metre six. The skipper didn’t just stop there, as on the very next delivery, he gave himself some room and brought out his famous pull shot for another maximum over the square leg region.
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Overall, Rohit smashed an unbeaten 46 from 20 deliveries with the help of 4 fours and as many sixes. With that, the right-handed batter also accomplished a remarkable record as he went past Martin Guptill to top the chart of batters with most sixes in T20Is.
Rohit, who is also the leading run-scorer in Men’s T20Is, now has 176 sixes to his name in this format. In second place is New Zealander Guptill (172). They are followed by West Indies great Chris Gayle (124), former England captain Eoin Morgan (120) and Australian skipper Aaron Finch (119).
“I was quite surprised as well, actually. Didn’t expect to hit it like that, glad it came off. For the last 8-9 months, I have been playing like that. You can’t really plan too much in such a shortened game. The bowlers had something to bowl to, and we bowled well. I would like to see his batting as well. Glad DK could finish well. Been a while since he had some time in the middle. There was this thought if we should get Rishabh in, but I thought Sams is going to bowl off-cutters, so I thought let DK come in, and he is playing that role anyway for us. Groundsmen have been here since 1.30 pm to get the outfield ready,” said Rohit at the post-match presentation.
