Which Indian hit a six off his first ball in ODIs? (11 July 2001)

To hit a six off the first ball he faces in his first big match is the ultimate fantasy of every aspiring batsman. One Indian actually lived out that fantasy in real life on his One-Day International debut. The scene was the Municipal Stadium in Gujranwala on 18 December, 1989. It was the second encounter of a four match series; the first in Peshawar two days earlier having been abandoned due to bad light. As it transpired, here too bad light took a hand, allowing a kick-off only after lunch. The game was reduced to 20 overs a side but India bowled only 16 overs in the 85 minutes available to curtail it even further. Having been put in, Pakistan closed on 87/9, almost half those runs coming from Saeed Anwar who made an unbeaten 42 off 32 balls.

Three Indians were making their debuts: Sachin Tendulkar, Salil Ankola and Vivek Razdan. There was no fairytale start for Tendulkar. He was caught by Wasim Akram off Waqar Younis for a second ball duck and dropped for the next two games. Razdan was only slightly more successful, making one before Imran Khan rattled his stumps in the final over. The third debutant Ankola arrived at the crease with 15 still needed in five balls and audaciously hoicked his first delivery over the fine leg boundary. But there was no twist in the tale. Only one more run accrued in the rest of Imran's over and Pakistan ran out winners by seven runs.

[ Archive ]

For more details on all the above facts check out [ StatsGuru ]