Dipendra Singh Airee, Nepal's big-hitting finisher, entered the record books as the third man to hit six sixes in an over in an international T20 game, achieving the feat in the last over against Qatar in their ACC Men's Premier Cup match in Al Amerat on Saturday.
Starting the final over on 28 off 15 balls and Nepal on 174 for 7, Airee smashed medium pacer Kamran Khan for six sixes to end on 64 from 21. Nepal's 210 for 7 then proved too much for Qatar as they went down by 32 runs. Airee also took two wickets in the chase.
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That put his name on a list which only had Yuvraj Singh (off Stuart Broad in Durban in the 2007 T20 World Cup) and Kieron Pollard (off Akila Dananjaya in Coolidge in 2021) so far. In ODI cricket, the feat has been achieved by Herschelle Gibbs and USA's Jaskaran Malhotra.
Airee, the 24-year-old playing his 60th T20I to go with 55 ODIs, is no stranger to the feat though. He had achieved it once previously, though the six consecutive sixes on that occasion were spread across two overs.
That was during the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September 2023, against Mongolia. It was made even more spectacular because those sixes came off the first six legal deliveries he had faced. The first five came in one over off Mungun Altankhuyag, and Airee completed the set off the first ball he faced next over from Luvsanzundui Erdenebulgan.
Airee had scored 52 not out in ten balls that day as Nepal put up a mammoth 314 for 3 and then bowled Mongolia out for 41. It was the first 300-plus team total in a T20I match, and the nine balls Airee took to get the fastest-ever T20I fifty in history, topping the mark of 12 held by Yuvraj, Chris Gayle and Hazratullah Zazai.