Ruturaj Gaikwad hits 7 sixes in an over, only batter to do so in cricket history
Ruturaj Gaikwad played one of the greatest knocks in Vijay Hazare Trophy history on Monday. The Maharashtra cricketer scored 220 runs off just 159 balls in the quarterfinal match against Uttar Pradesh. Gaikwad also hit seven sixes in one over.
Uttar Pradesh won the toss and elected to bat first at the Sardar Patel Stadium B Ground in Ahmedabad. The decision seemed to be working in their favor as Ankit Rajpoot and Kartik Tyagi respectively dismissed Rahul Tripathi and Satyajeet Bachhav cheaply. Maharashtra were 41/2 after 12.4 overs.
It looked like Maharashtra would finish with a total of around 250, but Ruturaj Gaikwad's blitzkrieg in the final phase of the innings inspired them to a 330-run total.
Gaikwad recorded his maiden List-A double century, hitting 10 fours and 16 sixes. Seven of those 16 maximums came in the 49th over of the innings, bowled by Shiva Singh. He hit two more in the final over bowled by Kartik Tyagi to guide Maharashtra to 330/5 in 50 overs.
Ruturaj Gaikwad created several records in his 220-run knock
Ruturaj Gaikwad became the first Indian player to smash seven sixes in an over of List-A cricket. He also became the joint-holder of the record for the most runs hit by a batter in one over of List-A matches. Besides, the 220-run knock against Uttar Pradesh is now his personal best score in List-A matches.
Other Maharashtra batters could not support him much. Ankit Bawne and Azim Kazi scored 37 runs each but they failed to accelerate their innings.
Uttar Pradesh need 331 runs to beat Maharashtra and qualify for the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2022 semifinals. They have some talented names like Akshdeep Nath, Rinku Singh, Priyam Garg, Aryan Juyal, and Karan Sharma in their batting lineup.
It will be interesting to see if Uttar Pradesh can pull off a win.