Rohit Sharma breaks Shahid Afridi's elusive international record with fiery Florida knock against West Indies
Rohit scored a fiery 16-ball 33 against Nicholas Pooran's men, a knock that helped India get off a dominant start in the fourth T20I. And en route to the knock, Rohit smashed Pakistan legend Shahid Afridi's long-standing record in international cricket.
India captain Rohit Sharma played a crucial role in the team's 59-run win at Lauderhill in Florida on Saturday, a win which helped India seal the series with a match in hand in the five-game T20I contest against West Indies. Rohit scored a fiery 16-ball 33 against Nicholas Pooran's men, a knock that helped India get off a dominant start in the fourth T20I. And en route to the knock, Rohit smashed Pakistan legend Shahid Afridi's long-standing record in international cricket. Watch: Rohit Sharma furious at Rishabh Pant for deliberately taking time to effect run-out in IND vs WI T20I
Rohit's knock came after West Indies opted to bowl first in Florida following a small rain delay. Rohit laced two boundaries and three maximums in his 16-ball knock to give India a solid start with a 53-run opening stand alongside Suryakumar Yadav in 4.4 overs.
With those twin sixes, Rohit went past former Pakistan captain Afridi to record the most sixes scored by an Asian batter in international cricket. Rohit now has a tally of 477 sixes, one more than Afridi. Overall, Rohit stands second in international cricket after West Indies great Chris Gayle's tally of 553 sixes.
Rohit's tally of 477 sixes includes 163 sixes in 132 T20I appearances, 250 sixes in 233 ODI matches and remaining 64 in Test cricket.
En route to the knock, Rohit also reached the milestone of 3000 runs in T20I cricket as an opener. He became only the second batter in the world to reach the milestone after New Zealand's Martin Guptill, who has a tally of 3119 runs as 99 innings as openers. Overall, Rohit's T20I run tally of 3487 runs in 132 appearances remains the highest ever score by a batter in the format.
Talking about the game, an all-round performance from the Indian side helped them secure a series win.
"I think it was pleasing how we played the game. The conditions were not easy but we got to a good score. A lot of thought went in on how we batted and it was pleasing to see. The pitch was quite slow which our bowlers used to their advantage. I thought 190 was a good score, but with the kind of batting that WI have, no score is good. We played good cricket to get the win today. The batters were really smart and the bowlers bowled in pairs to get wickets. It put the brakes on their scoring," Rohit said after the win.