Team India was invited to bat first in the series decider by the hosts at Headingley. England bowled well up front and kept the openers quite in the powerplay. The skipper Virat Kohli played a brilliant knock of 71 runs but others struggled with the ball increasingly gripping in the surface as the innings progressed. With wickets falling at the regular intervals, one felt that the Men in Blue would finish with an underwhelming score. However, Shardul Thakur came to the fore at the right time for them and helped them cross the 250-run mark.
Most cricket fans remember Yuvraj Singh for his explosive batting style and the unforgettable feat of hitting six sixes in an over in the 2007 inaugural World T20 off Stuart Broad. On Tuesday, history was almost repeated when Shardul Thakur blazed his way to the boundaries, pounding Ben Stokes in the 49th over for a six and another after three deliveries.
Shardul Thakur is only the 2nd player to hit a SIX for India in this ODI series. Rohit Sharma hit four sixes in the first match in Nottingham.
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats)
Shardul Thakur is only the 2nd player to hit a SIX for India in this ODI series. Rohit Sharma hit four sixes in the first match in Nottingham.
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats)This being India’s end of the boundary drought after two matches, let us take a look at the man who has repeated this feat early on in his career.
Shardul played for the Swami Vivekanand School, which he represented in the Harris Shield Cricket Tournament, a tournament organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association for school level. During a match against S Radhakrishnan School in 2006, Shardul hammered spinner Vishal Dhruv over the mid-wicket region for sixes in a single over and played an innings of 160 runs of 73 balls which included 10 sixes and 20 fours.
In spite of the Twitterati trolling the Indian team’s big hitters on how a bowler had to end the drought of boundaries, what is significant to note is that Shardul has the potential if his previous performances are to go by. While India lost to the hosts, his was an innings worth watching.
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