India captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday equalled South Africa’s AB de Villiers for hitting the most ODI sixes in a calendar year during his team’s ODI World Cup 2023 match against South Africa at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
During his attacking knock of 40 off 24 balls, Rohit smashed two sixes to reach the 58 sixes mark before getting out to fast bowler Kagiso Rabada in the sixth over.
The Proteas star De Villiers, who was known for his agricultural shots, hit 58 sixes in 18 ODI innings in 2015 while Rohit played 23 innings in 2023 so far to achieve the milestone.
With this, Rohit surpassed West Indies opener Chris Gayle, who now sits second on the list with 56 sixes in 2019.
Most ODI sixes by a player in a calendar year
AB de Villiers (South Africa) – 58 sixes in 18 innings in 2015
Rohit Sharma (India) – 58 sixes in 23 innings in 2023
Chris Gayle (West Indies) – 56 sixes in 15 innings in 2019
Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) – 48 sixes in 36 innings in 2002
Muhammad Waseem (UAE) – 47 sixes in 24 innings in 2023
The 36-year-old Sharma completed 300 ODI maximums earlier in the tournament.
Playing in his 259th ODI, Rohit now has 314 maximums in the ODIs and only Gayle (331) and Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi (351) have hit more sixes in 50 over-format.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat first as India, are the only undefeated side in the tournament, went in with the same XI for this match.
On the other hand, there was only one change in the South Africa setup, with Tabraiz Shamsi coming in for Gerald Coetzee.
Playing XIs:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.
