Delhi Capitals' Prithvi Shaw
Delhi Capitals opener Prithvi Shaw handed his side a searing start on Thursday as he smacked Kolkata Knight Riders' Shivam Mavi for 6 consecutive fours at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
In the very first over bowled by 22-year-old Mavi, Shaw belted six deliveries to the boundary rope, becoming the only player after Ajinkya Rahane to hit 6 fours in an IPL over. India's Test vice-captain Rahane had previously hit 6 fours against Royal Challengers Bangalore back in 2012. Mavi started off with a wide but ended up conceding fours on the next six legal deliveries. Luke Wright had also hit six consecutive fours in 2013 but it was across two overs.
Shaw also became the first batsman to score 24 runs in the first over of an IPL game. Naman Ojha (21) and Sunil Narine (21) previously held the record for hitting most runs in the introductory over.
Earlier, birthday boy Andre Russell was in sublime touch with the bat as he guided Kolkata Knight Riders to 154/6. Russell's late onslaught, featuring 2 fours and four maximums, helped KKR recover from a middle-order collapse. Celebrating his 33rd birthday, Russell smashed a six off Avesh Khan on the last delivery of the innings as the Kolkata outfit notched up 42 runs from the last three overs.
Russell's first 16 runs came off 18 deliveries before he put his foot on the gas pedal to smack 29 from the next nine balls. He finished with 45 from 27 deliveries and in the process, completed 6,000 runs in the T20 format of the game. The Caribbean giant is now the sixth West Indian player to gather 6,000 or more runs in T20s.
Russell hit 11 runs off the 18th over bowled by Avesh, 18 runs in the 19th bowled by Kagiso Rabada, and 13 in the 20th bowled again by Avesh.
