In Tuesday’s T20 World Cup East Asia-Pacific Region Qualifier in Apia, against Vanuatu, Samoan batsman Darius Visser broke the men’s T20I record for most runs in an over. Visser scored 132 off 62 balls in the end.
Visser, 28, hit six sixes in a 39-run over against Nalin Nipiko in only his third Twenty20 International. In men’s Twenty20 Internationals, it was the fourth time a hitter had hit six sixes in an over and the first time a side had scored more than 36 runs in an over.
In Samoa’s innings, the record was broken in the fifteenth over. Following a front foot no-ball, Visser blasted the first three deliveries from Nipiko over the deep midwicket boundary. After Visser’s straight shot hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end, a dot ball was awarded after the free-hit was smashed for six over the leg side.
After overstepping once again, Nipiko delivered a no-ball for height, which Visser successfully hit over fine leg for six. To complete the over with 39 runs, Visser flicked the final ball of the over, a low full toss outside off stump, over deep square leg.
In men’s T20Is, there have been five other cases where a side has scored 36 runs in an over. During the 2007 T20 World Cup, Yuvraj Singh of India became the first batsman to hit six sixes in a Twenty20 International, off Stuart Broad of England. In 2021, Kieron Pollard of the West Indies and Dipendra Singh Airee of Nepal both accomplished the same feat against Akila Dananjaya of Sri Lanka.
The other two 36-run overs that did not include six sixes occurred in the 2024 T20 World Cup when West Indies, with assistance from Nicholas Pooran, scored 36 against Afghanistan and when India’s Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh combined to score 36 against Afghanistan in the same year.
Visser’s fourteen sixes ranked seventh in a men’s T20I innings and he is the first batsman from Samoa to make a century in the format. Out of Samoa’s 174 runs scored, his score of 132 was also the greatest percentage of runs scored by a hitter in an innings by a team. Caleb Jasmat, the captain of Samoa, scored 16 against Vanuatu, which was his second-highest score. Visser surpassed Australia’s Aaron Finch’s previous record of 75.1% by scoring 75.86% of his team’s runs.
Visser was a fast bowler in his youth in Sydney, but he had to turn to legspin and batting due to chronic ailments and stress fractures, according to a St George & Sutherland Leader story. Samoa won the match by ten runs because to his wicket-taking exploits, as they limited Vanuatu to 164 for 9.
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