Andre Russell joins Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers in elite club of six hitters

Star all-rounder Andre Russell has made some match-winning contributions with bat and ball for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

On Wednesday, April 3, Kolkata faced Delhi Capitals (DC), at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Batting first, the former two-time champions posted a whopping 272/7, the second-highest team total in IPL history. After Sunil Narine (85 off 39 balls) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54 off 27 balls) set the platform, Russell amassed 41 off 19 balls as KKR effectively batted the Capitals out of the contest. In the end, Rishabh Pant and Co. were bowled out for 166 in the 18th over as the Knights won by a massive 106 runs.

During his swashbuckling knock, Russell hit four fours and three towering sixes. In the process of hitting three monstrous maximums, the 35-year-old became the seventh batter in the IPL to hit 200 sixes for a franchise. Virat Kohli tops the list for most sixes hit by a player for a particular franchise as he has deposited the ball over the boundary ropes on 242 instances. Chris Gayle (239), AB de Villiers (238), Kieron Pollard (223), MS Dhoni (212), and Rohit Sharma (210) are the other five batters who have hit at least 200 maximums for an IPL team.

Meanwhile, Nitish Rana (106), Robin Uthappa (85), Yusuf Pathan (85) and Sunil Narine (76) are behind Russell in the list of the top five six hitters for the Knight Riders. After a disappointing season last year where he scored just 227 runs from 14 matches at an average of 20.64 and a strike rate of 145.51, Russell has hit the ground running in IPL 2024. In three matches, he has scored 105 runs, averaging 105 and having a mind-boggling strike rate of 238.64.

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Andre Russell proving vital for KKR with the ball in IPL 2024

Andre Russell is also a very effective pacer, who has an uncanny knack for picking up wickets. In the ongoing IPL 2024, he has bowled with a lot of control and has been difficult to hit. In three matches, he has bagged five wickets at an average of 13.60. Three of his five wickets came in the clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. He bowled a lot of slower deliveries and bagged three wickets when all the other bowlers were being taken to the cleaners.

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Russell has been an integral part of the franchise since 2014. In 108 innings for KKR, Russell scored 2,309 runs at an average of 30.79 with a strike rate of 177.07. If the Jamaica-born can continue on this note, KKR, who are sitting at the top of the table with three wins from as many games, will be hard to stop.