Surat, Nov 10 (IANS) Meghalaya’s Akash Kumar Choudhary, who scripted history on Sunday by smashing eight consecutive sixes in first-class cricket, opened up about his mindset when he came out to bat, saying his plan was to play attacking cricket, but he hadn’t thought of reaching the historic feat.

The 25-year-old Akash smashed eight consecutive sixes while racing to a record-breaking fifty in only 11 balls, surpassing the previous best set by Leicestershire’s Wayne White, who reached fifty in 12 balls in 2012. Before that, Clive Inman had held the record since 1965 with a 13-ball fifty.

He achieved the feats on the second day of Meghalaya’s Plate Group game in the Ranji Trophy against Arunachal Pradesh in Surat. He also became only the third player in first-class cricket history to hit six consecutive maximums in an over, joining West Indies legend Sir Garfield Sobers and former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri. South Africa’s Mike Procter also hit six sixes in a row, but across two different overs.

Speaking to IANS about his remarkable record, Akash said, “I went out to bat according to what the team situation demanded. My mindset was to play attacking cricket, score as many runs as possible, and declare early – that was the message from the dressing room. I wasn’t thinking about hitting eight sixes. After hitting three, I felt there was a chance to go for six maximums in the over, but the seventh and eighth sixes just happened according to the ball.

Akash, who is himself a fast bowler, sees India’s pace spearheads Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj as his idols and said he doesn’t want to overhype his feat; instead, he wants to stay grounded to fulfill his team’s goal of returning to the Elite section of the Ranji Trophy.

“I still haven’t completely processed this record yet, but I don’t want to overhype it because we still have matches left, so I want to stay grounded. Our team has moved down from the Elite group, so our only goal now is to get back to the Elite level,” he added.

Akash, who made his T20 debut in 2019 during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the same venue in Surat, where he has now created a world record, said that Surat has been lucky for him, as he took his first T20 wicket here and has now etched his name in the history books.

“Surat has been lucky for me because I took my first T20 wicket here on my debut, and now I’ve created a world record at the same venue. I couldn’t have asked for a bigger stroke of luck than this,” he said.

Akash signed off by sharing about the cricketing infrastructure in the North-East region of the country, saying, “BCCI is doing a lot of work in the North East, and we’ve got quite a bit of infrastructure now. But playing cricket here is still a bit challenging because of the weather conditions. However, people are coming forward to play cricket, and academies are opening up too, so there’s a good scope for the game,” he said.

–IANS

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