March 21, 2002

Most sixes in an individual Test innings

Mohammad Ramis Shah

Updated
On 23 March 2002, during the last day of the first Test match (no. 1592) between New Zealand and England at Auckland, Nathan Astle smashed eleven sixes during his amazing innings of 222. He set a new record of most sixes in an innings for New Zealand, beating the previous record of nine sixes by Chris Cairns (120) - against Zimbabwe at the same ground in 1995-96. However, the all-time record is still held by Pakistan's Wasim Akram who cracked 12 sixes during his unbeaten 257-run knock against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura in 1996.

Rather interestingly, Astle's second hundred (from 101 to 200) came off only 39 balls in 69 minutes, which is believed to be a world record. According to newspaper reports, Wally Hammond during his triple hundred against New Zealand at Auckland in 1933 needed just 47 balls to go from 200 to 300. So that means, Astle's second 100 in 39 balls is the fastest ever because the current actual fastest (from 0 to 100) was by West Indian Viv Richards, who took 56 balls against England at St John's in 1985-86.

In the almost 125 years of Test cricket, since it took its birth way back in 1877, there have been references of almost 5260 sixes or hits over-the-boundary ropes. Prior to 1912, many scoring strokes that obviously landed over the boundary but according to scoring regulations at that time were awarded only 4 or 5 runs. The following list has however been compiled treating them as if they were a present-day six. The two innings below listed for Joe Darling are examples of this.

6s	Batsman	Score	For	Vs	Venue	Season
12	Wasim Akram	257*	Pak	Zim	Sheikupura	1996-97
11	NJ Astle	222	NZ	Eng	Auckland	2001-02
10	WR Hammond	336*	Eng	NZ	Auckland	1932-33
9	CL Cairns	120	NZ	Zim	Auckland	1995-96
8	AC Gilchrist	204*	Aus	SA	Johannesburg	2001-02
8	NS Sidhu	124	Ind	SL	Lucknow	1993-94
7	B Sutcliffe	80*	NZ	SA	Johannesburg	1953-54
7	IVA Richards	110*	WI	Eng	St Johns	1985-86
7	CG Greenidge	213	WI	NZ	Auckland	1986-87
6	JH Sinclair	104	SA	Aus	Cape Town	1902-03
6	IVA Richards	192*	WI	Ind	Delhi	1974-75
6	Haroon Rashid	108	Pak	Eng	Hyderabad	1977-78
6	IT Botham	118	Eng	Aus	Manchester	1981
6	RJ Shastri	121*	Ind	Aus	Bombay	1986-87
6	WJ Cronje	82	SA	SL	Pretoria	1997-98
6	CD McMillan	142	NZ	SL	Colombo	1997-98
6	JN Rhodes	103*	SA	WI	Centurion	1998-99
6	CL Cairns	69	NZ	Aus	Wellington	1999-00
6	Wasim Akram	100	Pak	SL	Galle	1999-00
6	ML Hayden	203	Aus	Ind	Madras	2000-01
5	J Darling	51	Aus	Eng	Manchester	1902
5	J Darling	73	Aus	Eng	Manchester	1905
5	SJE Loxton	93	Aus	Eng	Leeds	1948
5	ER Dexter	172	Eng	Pak	The Oval	1962
5	JH Edrich	310*	Eng	NZ	Leeds	1965
5	DT Lindsay	182	SA	Aus	Johannesburg	1966-67
5	GT Dowling	239	NZ	Ind	Christchurch	1967-68
5	BR Taylor	124	NZ	WI	Auckland	1968-69
5	IT Botham	137	Eng	Ind	Leeds	1979
5	AR Border	153	Aus	Pak	Lahore	1979-80
5	IT Botham	66	Eng	Ind	Delhi	1981-82
5	Imran Khan	117	Pak	Ind	Faisalabad	1982-83
5	MA Holding	59	WI	Eng	Leeds	1984
5	Imran Khan	135*	Pak	Ind	Madras	1986-87
5	Wasim Akram	62	Pak	Ind	Madras	1986-87
5	CG Greenidge	141	WI	Ind	Calcutta	1987-88
5	Javed Miandad	271	Pak	NZ	Auckland	1988-89
5	PA De Silva	123	SL	NZ	Auckland	1990-91
5	MJ Slater	219	Aus	SL	Perth	1995-96
5	AC Gilchrist	152	Aus	Eng	Birmingham	2001
5	JH Kallis	157*	SA	Zim	Harare	2001-02

- All data updated to 27.02.2002
- Acknowledgement: Inadvertently omitted from the previous edition of this article; Mr Ross Smith's excellent website http://au.geocities.com/sportandhistory/cricket/test.html

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Most sixes in an individual Test innings

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