IPL 2024: Rohit Sharma breaks Pollard’s most-sixes record, opens up about Impact Player rule

Currently, Rohit has smashed 224 sixes for MI in the T20 tournament. Pollard holds the second place on the list with 223 sixes. Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan stand in the third and fourth place with 104 and 103 sixes respectively

Our Bureau
Mumbai/New Delhi  

Former Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma leap-frogged Kieron Pollard’s long-standing record for most sixes for the Mumbai-based franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Rohit achieved the remarkable feat during Mumbai Indians’s clash against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the 33rd match of the IPL 2024 at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

The 36-year-old faced 25 balls against PBKS and scored 36 runs at a strike rate of 144. He slammed 2 fours and 3 overhead boundaries during his time on the crease.

Currently, Rohit has smashed 224 sixes for MI in the T20 tournament. Pollard holds the second place on the list with 223 sixes. Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan stand in the third and fourth place with 104 and 103 sixes respectively.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians opener Rohit Sharma expressed his feelings on the Impact Player rule, saying that it will hold the development of all-rounders, which was introduced in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year.

The impact player rule allows a particular team to introduce a 12th player to the team from a list in which the five names are given at the time of a toss. A team can bring in a player for the playing XI by replacing any player the team wants, depending on the situation.

Rohit said that due to the impact of the player rule, players like Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar are not getting a chance to bowl, which is not a good thing for Team India.

“I genuinely feel it is going to hold back the development of all-rounders because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12. So I am not a big fan of the Impact Player Rule because you are taking so much from the game just to make it a little more entertaining for the people around you. But just in the cricketing aspect of it, I feel guys like Washington Sundar, and Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which is not a good thing for us (India). I am not sure what you can do about it, but I am not a fan of it,” said Rohit in the Club Prairie Fire podcast.

The 37-year-old player further stated that most of the teams don’t need an extra batter as their batters are doing great upfront.

“It is entertaining though, as there are 12 players to select from and whoever that Impact player is, can see how the game is going and change it based on what you need, and how the pitch is behaving. If you bat well and don’t lose too many wickets, you can add a bowler, which gives you the option of having 6-7 bowlers. You don’t need that extra batter because a lot of the teams upfront are batting well and you hardly see No. 7 or 8 coming to bat,” the right-hand batter added.

In the last fixture against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Rohit became the first Indian to smash 500 sixes in T20 cricket. The highest number of sixes in T20 cricket is by West Indies legend Chris Gayle (1,056 sixes), followed by WI all-rounder Kieron Pollard (860 sixes), Andre Russell (678 sixes) and Colin Munro (548 sixes). In six matches this IPL season, Rohit has scored 261 runs at an average of 52.20 and a strike rate of over 167, with a century.

“There are ups and downs in life”: Surya reflects on lean spell

After producing a stormy 78 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on Thursday, Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Suryakumar Yadav said that his scores this season taught him that there are “ups and downs” in life.

Suryakumar scored 78 runs from 53 balls at a strike rate of 147.17. He slammed 7 fours and 3 overhead boundaries during his time on the crease.

While speaking after the end of first inning, Suryakumar said that he has been recovering well from his injury and already started fielding and training. He also hoped that soon he can take part in a full T20 match.

“That teaches you there are ups and downs in life (on his scores this season). It is going really, I am almost there, I have started fielding and training, hoping I will be on the field for the whole 40 overs. Nothing much (on his celebration), there was a batters meeting and we spoke about a batter batting for 15-16 overs, took a little more time today but once Rohit got out, someone had to bat deep. There hasn’t been dew and if that is the case then it is way above par,” Suryakumar said.

Recapping the first inning of the match, Punjab Kings sent Mumbai Indians to bat first. Following that a fiery knock from Suryakumar (78) propeled MI to 192/7. Apart rom SKY, Rohit Sharma (36) and Tilak Varma (34) played a pivotal role in the inning and helped MI to add valuable runs on the scoreboard.

Suryakumar Yadav’s blistering 78-run knock propelled Mumbai Indians (MI) to 192/7 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

After winning the toss Sam Curran’s Punjab opted to field first, however, their decision did not quite go in their favour as the bowling attack of the hosts failed to take early wickets.

Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma opened for Mumbai and could only make a partnership of 18 runs. Kagiso Rabada made the first breakthrough of the match after the Proteas pacer dismissed Kishan in the third over.

Kishan displayed a sloppy performance in the game as he scored just 8 runs from 8 balls.

Suryakumar Yadav replaced Kishan on the crease and made a solid partnership with Rohit. The two batters made a partnership of 81 runs. Meanwhile, the Punjab bowlers struggled to scalp wickets.

Sam Curran bagged the crucial wicket of Rohit in the 12th over. The former MI skipper played a 36-run knock after facing 25 balls at a strike rate of 1444. He smashed 2 fours and 3 sixes.

The Punjab skipper picked up another important wicket as he dismissed Suryakumar in the 17th over of the first inning. The star batter scored 78 runs from 53 balls at a strike rate of 147.17. He hit 7 fours and 3 sixes.

“He’s a really tough guy”: Shreyas Gopal on Hardik Pandya

Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling allrounder Shreyas Gopal on Wednesday showered praise on his skipper Hardik Pandya and called him a “tough guy”.

While speaking at a pre-match press conference, Gopal said that he has known Hardik for a decade now. He added that the MI skipper is one of the “toughest human beings in the world”.

“See, very honestly, I’ve known Hardik for a decade since my time at Mumbai Indians 10 years ago. Even then, nothing much has changed between us. And if people know him, he’s a really tough guy. As much as people say he’s a strong guy, don’t worry; he is. Over 10 years of experience or 10 years of friendship with him, he’s a really tough guy. He’s one of the toughest human beings in the world,” Gopal was quoted by MI’s website as saying.

In MI’s last match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Pandya scalped two wickets in his three-over spell and gifted 43 runs. However, he failed to shine with the bat as he scored only two runs playing six balls.

He added that they were “unfortunate” to concede a 20-run loss against CSK in their previous match of the IPL 2024.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t cross the line on the winning side in the last match. But if you look at it, this tournament is my 10th year in the IPL, and every team goes through ups and downs. When you start hitting a purple patch, you click as a team. We saw a couple of outstanding games where we all came together as a group,” he added.

MI are currently standing in the ninth place on the IPL standings after winning two of six matches with four points at a net run rate of -0.234.