The weather forecast in Sharjah on Tuesday was expected to be hot and dry without any rain. However, the forecast was proven wrong, although with a twist. It did rain. It rained sixes in Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The IPL 2020 clash between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings witnessed a massive 33 sixes in the entire match, with Rajasthan Royals scoring 17 and Chennai Super Kings ending up second-best with 16. In a high-scoring encounter, Sanju Samson’s brilliant knock, combined with Steve Smith’s fifty and a blazing cameo by Jofra Archer helped Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super King by 16 runs.
Sanju Samson hit nine sixes in his knock of 74 while Steve Smith hit four sixes. Jofra Archer’s cameo included four consecutive sixes in the final over bowled by Lungi Ngidi as Rajasthan Royals ended on 216/7. In response, Chennai Super Kings got going when Shane Watson hit four sixes in his knock of 35 but Faf du Plessis was the star with seven sixes in his knock of 72. Sam Curran hit two sixes in his brief stay while MS Dhoni ended the match in style with three sixes although the onslaught came too late.
Record tally
The tally of 33 sixes in an IPL game is the joint-most in a match in the history of the Indian Premier League. In the 2018 Kaveri Derby battle between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings, another high-scoring encounter saw sixes rain down at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
AB de Villiers hit eight sixes while Quinton de Kock smashed four sixes. Mandeep Singh hit three while Washington Sundar also hit one as Royal Challengers Bangalore gave Chennai Super Kings a target of 206. Shane Watson and Dwayne Bravo hit a six apiece but the real damage was done by Ambati Rayudu and MS Dhoni. Rayudu hit eight sixes in his knock of 82 while Dhoni smashed seven in his knock of 70 from 34 balls as Chennai Super Kings won the match.