West Indies lost the third match (and the ODI series), on Saturday, against Bangladesh; however, Chris Gayle managed to laugh his way to the record books. The flamboyant batsman equalled Shahid Afridi’s record of hitting the most number of sixes in international cricket. Gayle’s five sixes in his inning have put him on the level with the former Pakistan all-rounder!

Chris Gayle was dismissed for 73 runs in the match, but that was enough to draw parallels with record holder Afridi. The knock saw him hit six fours and five sixes in his 66-ball stay at the crease. With those five sixes, Gayle’s tally of sixes, across all formats be it ODI, Tests, or T20I, climbed up to 476, i.e. also the maximum number of sixes hit in cricket history.

Amongst the current list of players in the list, we have MS Dhoni on number 5, Rohit Sharma on 7, followed by Martin Guptill on number 8 in the top 10. We, at LatestLY, bring you the list of top 10 batsmen in international cricket history who have hit the most number of sixes in their respective careers.

List of Batsmen with the Most Number of Sixes across Tests, ODIs and T20Is Matches:

Sr. No. Player Country Matches Runs 100s 50s 4s 6s
1. Shahid Afridi Pakistan 524 11,196 11 51 1053 476
2. Chris Gayle West Indies 443 18,548 40 99 2256 476
3. Brendon McCullum New Zealand 432 14,676 19 76 1552 398
4. Sanath Jayasuriya Sri Lanka 586 21,032 42 103 2486 352
5. MS Dhoni India 504 16,409 16 102 1427 342
6. AB de Villiers South Africa 420 20,014 47 109 2004 328
7. Rohit Sharma India 292 10,313 24 58 921 291
8. Martin Guptill New Zealand 281 10,833 18 65 1139 274
9. Sachin Tendulkar India 664 34,357 100 164 4076+ 264
10. Adam Gilchrist Australia 396 15,461 33 81 1866 262
(Records include stats of all international matches completed on and before July 29, 2018)

Chris Gayle can eclipse the record, on Wednesday, when West Indies will take on Bangladesh in the first T20I of the three-match series. The dashing opener, who has a knack of balls out of the park at his will, still has a lot of cricket left in him to hit many more sixes in his career ahead. Looking at the current crop of cricketers and the gap in their sixes' tally, it seems that Gayle would hold on to this record for a long time!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2018 01:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).