T20I Premier Cup: Nepal all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee has become the third batter to hit six sixes in an over in men’s T20Is. Airee achieved the momentous feat by smashing six sixes in an over in the ACC Men’s T20I Premier Cup clash against Qatar at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground here on Saturday.
Airee, who smashed the six sixes in the last over of Nepal’s innings against medium pacer Kamran Khan, has now joined Yuvraj Singh and Kieron Pollard to become the third batter to achieve this feat in men’s T20Is.
His feat meant that Airee went from 28 off 15 balls before the start of the over to 64 from 21 balls and took Nepal to 210/7. Yuvraj was the first batter to smash six sixes when he did so in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2007 off Stuart Broad. Pollard joined him in the exclusive club in 2021 by smashing Akila Dananjaya for six sixes in Coolidge.
In men’s ODIs, South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs was the first to hit six sixes in an over during the 2007 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup match against the Netherlands. USA’s Jaskaran Malhotra achieved the same in 2021 against Papua New Guinea.
Interestingly, last year, Airee hit six consecutive sixes in the Asian Games against Mongolia, but then the feat was spread across two overs when he smashed the fastest fifty in T20Is in just nine balls, breaking Yuvraj’s record of 12 deliveries.
Airee first came into notice after playing for Nepal in the 2016 ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh in 2016 and got into the senior men’s team at 17. His sparkling form is a huge boost for Nepal, who are in Group D alongside South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Netherlands for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, to be hosted in the West Indies and USA from June 1-29.