India's Umesh Yadav, right, bats during the second day of third and last cricket test match between India and South Africa in Ranchi.
On a day when Rohit Sharma scored his maiden double ton in Test cricket, Ajinkya Rahane scored his first Test century at home since 2016 and Ravindra Jadeja scored his second half-century, the unlikeliest of batters, Umesh Yadav too scripted a piece of history with the willow. Coming to bat at No.9, Umesh scored 31 runs in 10 balls laced with five sixes.
Against the flighted delivery from George Linde, Umesh whacked the very first ball of his knock, with just immense power to clear the ropes. And he did it again in the very next ball, then sending the ball sailing over the long-on boundary. With back-to-back sixes in his very first ball, Umesh became the third cricketer ever to start off his innings in such a manner after former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and late West Indies batsman Foffie Williams. While the latter had managed it against England's Jim Laker in 1948, Sachin had scored it against Australia's Nathan Lyon.
Two deliveries later, Umesh cleared the deep mid-wicket boundary once again off Linde and struck two more off alternate deliveries before being dismissed by the leggie.
Upon his dismissal, Umesh walked back with a strike rate of 310 -- the highest for a cricketer in a 10-ball innings in Test history. Also, with no fours in his 31-run carnage, Umesh became the player with maximum sixes and zero boundaries in his Test knock.
