Shashank Singh was a low-key buy in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auctions at his base price of Rs 20 lakh. Shashank has been a part of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) playing XI for the last five games but did not get a chance to bat once, as their frontline batters fired. But when Shashank got a chance to showcase his talent, he sure did in style with a sensational six-ball 25 cameo where he decimated Kiwi speedster Lockie Ferguson.
The 30-year-old walked in to bat at no.8 after the wicket of Washington Sundar in the penultimate over. The first ball he faced was a thunderbolt from Alzarri Joseph. He got off to the mark with a boundary by lofting the overpitched delivery over extra cover. In the next two deliveries he got three runs.
The last over
In the last over, Marco Jansen had the strike off the first ball. Jansen hit the first ball for a six. It was followed by a dot ball from Ferguson. The 21-year-old South African batter took a single to get Shashank on strike. Off the last three deliveries, Shashank made use of the crease, capitalised on Ferguson's errors to hit three consecutive sixes and help SRH post a total of 195/6.
Missed record by whisker
Shashank walked back to the dressing room with a strike rate of 416.67. This is the second-best strike rate in an innings in IPL history (minimum 25 runs). The record for highest strike rate belongs to former South African cricketer Chris Morris. The all-rounder scored 38 runs from just nine deliveries for Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) against now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant in the 2017 edition of IPL.
IPL stints
Shashank had earlier been included in the Delhi and Rajasthan Royals (RR) squad but did not get a chance to make his IPL debut.
T20 record
Before making his IPL debut, the batter had scored 424 runs from 27 innings including three half-centuries at an average of 20.19 and a strike rate of 142.28.
