[WATCH] Sri Lankan batter Kusal Mendis smashes the 2000th six of the T20 World Cup
Sri Lankan batter Kusal Mendis struck the 2000th six of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on Thursday, October 20, against the Netherlands in a Group A match of the ongoing edition.
The T20 World Cup began in 2007, with the inaugural edition being held in South Africa. The ongoing edition in Australia is the eighth ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
On Thursday, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first against the Netherlands in Geelong. On the last ball of the ninth over, Mendis smashed Dutch left-arm spinner Tim Pringle over the ropes in what turned out to be the 2000th six in the history of the ICC event.
Pringle went round the wicket to Mendis and bowled a tossed-up delivery. The Sri Lankan opener brought out a slog sweep and sent the ball sailing over deep square leg.
Unsurprisingly, West Indies legend Chris Gayle hit the first-ever six in the history of the T20 World Cup during the inaugural edition in South Africa. In the opening match of the 2007 tournament, the Windies took on hosts South Africa in Johannesburg.
West Indies were sent in to bat and Gayle hit the first six of the T20 World Cup in the third over. Shaun Pollock's first delivery of the over was crunched for a flat six over square leg.
Speaking of the Sri Lanka-Netherlands game in the ongoing T20 World Cup, the Lankans reached 138/4 after 18 overs, with Mendis having crossed the 50-run mark.
Earlier, batting first after winning the toss, Sri Lanka lost Pathum Nissanka (14) and Dhananjaya de Silva (0) to consecutive deliveries from Paul van Meekeren.
Nissanka was cleaned up by a yorker, while De Silva was adjudged lbw. However, replays showed the ball would have missed the stumps. The batter hadn’t taken the review. Charith Asalanka looked good for his 31 before being caught behind off Bas de Leede.
Who has hit the most sixes in the T20 World Cup?
Apart from being the first batter to hit a six in the tournament, Gayle also holds the record for having struck the highest number of maximums in the T20 World Cup. The aggressive left-handed batter has 63 sixes to his name from 31 innings.
Fun Fact: 2000 Sixes in the T20 World Cup history. Kusal Mendis hit the 2000th today against Netherlands. The first one was by Chris Gayle in 2007. #T20WorldCup
Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh is a distant second on the list with 33 sixes from 28 innings. Retired Aussie Shane Watson completes the top three. He smacked 31 sixes in 22 innings. Rohit Sharma and David Warner have also hit the same number of sixes as Watson, but in 30 innings each.