Dipendra's New Year gift: 6 sixes in one over

Nepal's Dipendrasingh Airi has set the record of hitting 6 consecutive sixes in one over on Saturday. Dipendra made this record in the ACC Twenty-20 Premier Cup cricket match against Qatar. He hit every ball bowled by Qatari bowler Kamran Khan in the last over at Al Amerat in Muscat. "After hitting the fourth six in a row, I made an intention to hit a six in the entire over, and I succeeded," Dipendra said, expressing his happiness about his latest achievement.

He has become the fifth player to hit 6 consecutive sixes in one over in international cricket and the third player in Twenty20 internationals. Earlier, Harshal Gibbs of South Africa hit Dan van Bunge of the Netherlands in the 2007 ODI World Cup at Bestere in West Indies and Yuvraj Singh of India hit Stuart Broad of England in the 2007 World Twenty20 in Durban, South Africa in all 6 balls of an over.

Similarly, West Indies' Kieran Pollard hit 6 consecutive sixes in Sri Lanka's Akila Dhananjay's over in 2021 and America's Jaskaran Malhotra in 2021 in one over of Papua New Guinea's Gaudy Toka. After Dipendra's success, Malhotra wrote on social media, "Hitting 6 consecutive sixes is not an easy task, welcome to the 6 consecutive sixes club."

This is not the first time that Dipendra has hit 6 consecutive sixes. In the 19th Asian Games held last year in Hangzhou, China, he also hit 6 sixes in 6 consecutive balls in two overs against Mongolia. It is the first time that he hit 6 sixes in one over. After hitting 6 sixes in the last 20th over against Qatar, Dipendra equaled two records of India's Yuvraj Singh. In the Asian Games, Dipendra scored a fifty in 9 balls and kept an unbeaten record in Twenty20 internationals.

Dipendra's unbroken record has broken the previous record of half-century made by Yuvraj in 12 balls. Before playing the last over against Qatar, Dipendra was playing with 28 runs off 15 balls. Dipendra, who completed his half-century in 19 balls, scored an unbeaten 64 runs in 21 balls. Which includes his seven sixes and 3 fours. Nepal defeated Qatar by 32 runs and won their second consecutive victory in the tournament.

Dipendra also took 2 wickets in this match. Despite hitting 6 consecutive sixes in one over in international cricket, the previous four players did not take a wicket in the same match.