It was raining sixes at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru as Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni turned up the heat for India in the second and final T20 against Australia.
The current and former India skippers dealt primarily in sixes as the hosts racked up a mammoth 190-5 in their 20 overs after being made to bat first by the Aussies.
Both the batsmen brought up a half-century of sixes in the T20Is during the course of their innings as the visitors were made to toil at Bengaluru.
Kohli struck six sixes during his unbeaten innings of 72 off just 38 deliveries while Dhoni slammed three of them in his 40-run knock.
It was Dhoni who started the fireworks on Wednesday as he became only the fourth Indian batsman after Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina to bring up 50 T20I sixes. The wicketkeeper batsman had faced plenty of flak for turning down eight singles in India’s loss in the first T20 but he was a man on a mission on Wednesday with a strike-rate of over 173.
Most sixes in an innings for Virat Kohli in International cricket:
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) February 27, 2019
7 sixes vs Australia, 2013 (Jaipur ODI)
6 sixes vs Australia, Today
The previous most he hit in a T20I was 4 sixes vs Sri Lanka in the WT20 2014 Final. #INDvAUS
Kohli followed the veteran soon after with the India skipper taking apart Nathan Coulter-Nile. Kohli struck the Aussie pacer for three consecutive sixes in the 16th over and finished off India’s innings in fitting style with a last-ball six off Pat Cummins.
The six sixes struck from Kohli’s bat is the most the India superstar has ever collected in a single T20I innings.
Kohli and Dhoni shared a 100-run stand for the fourth wicket with their explosive knocks helping India amass a staggering 117 runs in the final 10 overs of the innings.
Rohit, who was rested in Wednesday’s clash, remains the king when it comes to sixes for India in the format with 102 of them to his name and is second in the all-time list.
The India limited-overs deputy skipper trails West Indies icon Chris Gayle (103) and New Zealand stalwart Martin Guptill by just the one six. Kohli now has 54 sixes to his name while Dhoni has 52.
