Cricket: Dasun Shanaka slams 16 sixes for new Sri Lanka record

The Twenty20 skipper of Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), Dasun Shanaka established a new Sri Lanka record by hitting most number of sixes in the shorter version of cricket.

Shanaka hit 16 sixes during his knock of 123 which came off just 46 deliveries in SSC’s AIA Premier Twenty20 match against Saracens played at Colts ground on Tuesday (12). 

Shanaka’s team piled up 251-6 after his partnership with Kavindu Kulasekara for the seventh wicket which was 155 runs off 63 deliveries put them in a winning position. 

Shanaka’s feat of 16 sixes stands alongside Graham Napier’s feat of the same number in 2008. 

West Indies opener Chris Gayle holds the world record for most sixes in a an innings in Twenty20s when he hit 17 of them during his knock of 175 not out for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2013 season of Indian Premier League.

The 24-year-old allrounder has played 17 Twenty20 matches and has four centuries to his name with the highest being 131 not out which he slammed against Galle CC last week after facing 48 deliveries and hitting 12 sixes and 10 fours. 

Shanaka made his Twenty20 international debut for Sri Lanka against Pakistan in August 2015.