World record: King Darius takes 39 in an over, most share of team runs

Samoa’s Darius Visser, with an experience of just two international matches prior to today, shook the cricketing world when he smashed six sixes in six balls that helped his team collect 39 runs in an over, the most in a T20 International, eclipsing the previous best of 36. He achieved this feat against Nalin Nipiko of Vanuatu in an East Asia-Pacific Qualifier A match at Apia, the capital of Samoa.          

Yuvraj Singh of India (vs England’s Stuart Broad in 2007 World Cup), Kieron Pollard of West Indies (vs Sri Lanka’s Akila Dananjaya in 2021), Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh of India (vs Afghanistan’s Karim Janat in 2024), Dipendra Airee of Nepal (vs Qatar’s Kamran Khan in 2024) and Nicholas Pooran of West Indies (vs Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai in 2024) had previously got 36 runs in an over of a T20 International.

The 28-year-old Visser hit the first three sixes over deep mid-wicket through pull shots. A no-ball followed and then he hit the re-bowled fourth ball over deep square leg for a six. Nipiko bowled another no-ball and then followed that up with a waist high no-ball which was dispatched to deep square leg for six. Nipiko eventually bowled a legal sixth ball but Visser walked across outside the off-stump to hit the medium-pacer over deep fine leg for another six.

Visser went on to score 132 off 62 balls with 14 sixes and five fours. Despite his big knock, Samoa were bowled out for 174 in 20 overs as none of the other batsmen could get to 20. Captain Caleb Jasmat’s 16 was the next highest score with no one else getting more than five. Samoa, however, won the match by 10 runs.

Visser’s 75.86% is the highest share by a batsman in a team’s total. It beat Aaron Finch’s 75.1% against Zimbabwe in 2018.

Cricket, Darius Visser, Samoa, T20 International, World record, Yuvraj Singh