Bengaluru's Sanjay Krishnamurthi, a Computer Science student, smashes New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra for 4 sixes in a row
When all eyes were on Finn Allen, who was hitting the ball to different parts of the ground during a Major League Cricket (MCL) between the San Francisco Unicorns and the Washington Freedom, a 22-year-old young man from Bengaluru created ripples with his battling exploits. Sanjay Krishnamurthi, an Indian origin cricketer who plays for the USA, shot into the limelight by smashing New Zealand international Rachin Ravindra for four consecutive sixes in one over at the Oakland Coliseum on Friday.
Coming into bat at the fall of Jake Fraser-McGurk's wicket in the last over of the powerplay, Krishnamurthi took his time to get his eye in by nudging singles but once he saw the left-arm spin of Ravindra, he sprang into action. In the 8th over, bowled by Ravindra, Krishnamurthi blasted him for four consecutive sixes.
It was not a surprise that all four of Krishnamurthi's sixes came in the long-on and deep mid-wicket region. He is extremely strong off his pads and Ravindra kept feeding to his strengths. The pitch offered little assistance to the bowlers, which helped Krishnamurthi to line up the Washington bowler and launch into an assault.
Krishnamurthi scored 36 runs off 20 balls and stitched a blazing partnership of 88 runs with Finn Allen off just 37 balls. Allen ended up smashing multiple T20 records on his way to 151 off 51 balls with 19 sixes to help San Francisco post 269/5 in their 20 overs, which proved way too many for the Washington Freedom. Despite getting off to a fiery start, they collapsed to 146 all out in 13.1 overs. San Francisco won the match by a whopping 123 runs.
While Allen, who broke the record for most sixes in T20 cricket, was undoubtedly the star of the show, Krishnamurthi did leave his mark on the game.
Born in Arizona, US, Krishnamurthi shifted to Karnataka with hopes of representing India at the highest level, reported The Times of India. He represented the Karnataka U116 team but soon realised that playing for India had many roadblocks. The two most prominent ones were his Overseas Citizen of India card, which prevents him from representing India at the international level, and the supreme pool of talent that India has in cricket; the competition is insane.
"Yeah, from the moment I started playing cricket in India, the goal was to play for India. But I think I was also realistic. That it could happen. But I can't bank on anything happening. Because there are so many other players. And if it doesn't happen, what is my life going to look like? And yet, to make it happen, you have to throw everything at it, you can't go in half-heartedly," said the 22-year-old who has represented the USA in 14 ODIs and nine T20Is.
With the dream of playing for India practically closed after he decided not to give up on his US citizenship, Krishanmurthi's professional cricket career took a different turn in 2019 when he appeared for the MLC trials.
Since then Krishanmurthi has been juggling as a Computer Student at San Jose University in San Francisco and playing cricket for the USA. He got leeway from the University professors after he laid out a few impressive performances for USA in ODI cricket. Last year, he earned an MLC contract with the San Francisco Unicorns.
"Last season was my first time actually playing, and it was an incredible experience, especially to be alongside players such as Cummins, who is the Australian captain and one of the best players in the world right now. It was an opportunity for me to test myself against these guys, and until that point, I didn't know quite where I stood at the highest level. But after last season, it gave me a lot of confidence," he said.
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