Indian skipper Rohit Sharma surpassed South African
legend AB De Villiers to register most sixes in ODIs in a calendar year on Sunday.
Rohit achieved this milestone in India’s ICC Cricket
World Cup match against the Netherlands in Bengaluru. The skipper was at his best, scoring 61 in 54 balls,
with eight fours and two sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of over 112.
AB de Villiers had hit 58 ODI sixes in 2015 and now
Rohit has smashed 59 ODI sixes this year.
Rohit (24 sixes) has also overtaken England’s World
Cup-winning skipper Eoin Morgan (22 sixes in 2019) to register the most sixes
by a captain in a single World Cup edition.
Rohit also became the first player to register
500-plus runs in two successive World Cups. After registering 648 runs in nine
matches with five centuries and a fifty in the 2019 WC, Rohit now has 503 runs
in nine matches at an average of 55.88 and a strike rate of 121.
He also overtook Saurav Ganguly’s tally of 465 runs in
the 2003 World Cup to become the Indian captain with the most runs in a single
edition of the Cricket World Cup.
Besides Sachin Tendulkar (523 runs in the 1996 WC and
673 runs in the 2003 WC), Rohit is the only player to have 500 runs twice in a
single World Cup edition.
Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to
bat first.
The ‘Men in Blue’ will be eyeing to maintain their
unbeaten streak in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023 and will aim to win the
prestigious tournament.
Hosts India have displayed a quality performance at
the ongoing extravagant tournament and maintained their eight-game winning
streak. India stands at the top of the ODI World Cup 2023 standings with 16
points. They have a net run rate of +2.456.
The excellent Netherlands team demonstrated their
class earlier in the tournament when they shocked South Africa, and their
triumph over Bangladesh was equally stunning. But they have lost their
remaining matches and sit at the bottom.
ANI
