India captain Rohit Sharma has gone past the former hard-hitting West Indies batter Chris Gayle in a major ODI record during the second ODI against England in Cuttack on Sunday, February 9.
Rohit, who fell for just two in the first ODI, looked in far better touch in the second match. He quickly went off the blocks and slammed a six in the second over when he flicked Gus Atkinson all over the way. With this, he surpassed Gayle on the list of players to hit the most sixes in ODIs.
Rohit was on level with the former West Indian batter with 331 sixes to his name. He went past the mark with his first six of the match to take the second spot in the list of players with the most ODI sixes.
The tally is led by Shahid Afridi, who has 351 sixes in 398 matches. Rohit has a chance to go past the former Pakistan all-rounder and own the record.
Most sixes by players in ODI cricket:
1 - Chris Gayle: 351 sixes in 398 matches
2 - Rohit Sharma: 334* sixes in 267 matches
3 - Chris Gayle: 331 sixes in 301 matches
4 - Sanath Jayasuriya: 270 sixes in 445 matches
5 - MS Dhoni: 229 sixes in 350 matches
Rohit hit a couple more soon after in the first six overs. The India captain tonked Saqib Mahmood for a wonderful hit over covers before sending him over long-off in his next over.
England had put up 304 batting first. Ben Duckett provided them with a strong start with his 65 before Joe Root carried the innings forward as he made 69. It was Liam Livingstone (41) in the end who took them past 300 before England shot themselves with three run-outs to get bowled out with one ball left.
India's Playing XI:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy
England's Playing XI:
Philip Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c), Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Saqib Mahmood