It was Andre Russell mayhem last night at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts as the burly Trinbago Knight Riders batsman whacked clattered 72 runs in 24balls against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 9th match of the 6IXTY Men’s Competition, the newest franchise cricket format introduced by the West Indies board.
During his havoc knock, Russell also smoked 6 sixes in 6 balls, albeit in different overs. Russell walked in to bat in the third over at the fall of opener Tim Seifert’s wickets with the other opener, Tion Webster, at the other end. The big Jamaican started cleaning strike right from the onset of his innings, and it came to a point where he whacked 6 sixes on 6 consecutive balls.
One of the rules of the 6IXTY is that five consecutive overs will be bowled from one end, and the next five consecutive from the other end, which also means that the batters won’t change end on the last ball of every over. This rule of having five overs bowled on a trot from one end is believed to be introduced to speed up the game.
Dominic Drakes came on to bowl the 7th over which proved to be Russell’s destruction base, as the right-hander launched Drakes for four consecutive sixes on the last four balls of the over.
Then Jon-Russ Jaggesar was handed the bowling duties for the 8th over. Russell, who now kept the strike because of the rule, mowed down two sixes on the first two balls by Jaggesar making it six consecutive sixes for Andre Russell. Jaggesar eventually had the last laugh as he dismissed Russell on the last ball of the over, but by then the batter had caused severe damage to the bowling attack.
You can watch Andre Russell’s entire innings here:
Andre Russell SIX SIXES off consecutive SIX balls in the SIXTY tournament.
8 SIXES and 5 FOURS.@TKRiders pic.twitter.com/jBKyzqwPOj
— 𝗔𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘆𝗮⎊ (@StarkAditya_) August 28, 2022
Russell’s blistering knock of 72 runs in 24 balls, laced with 5 fours and 8 gigantic sixes, helped TKR get to 155 off their 10 overs.
SKNP did give them a scare as Sherfane Rutherford slammed 50 runs from only 15 balls, his knock consisting of 7 sixes, and Drakes scored 33 off 10 but eventually, they fell only 3 runs short.
This win for TKR ensured they finished third on the points table and qualified for the semi-finals where they will face Barbados Royals.
