Stats: Sri Lanka posts 345/8 against West Indies without hitting a six

Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis played a key role in powering Sri Lanka to a 161-run win against West Indies on Wednesday. With this win, Sri Lanka won the 3-match ODI series against West Indies and continue their unbeaten streak in the 50-over format at home against the Caribbean team. The centuries by the duo helped Sri Lanka finish with a huge total of 345/8. Avishka and Kusal were involved in a 239-run partnership for the 3rd wicket after they lost two wickets for 9 runs.

Despite scoring close to 7 runs an over at the end of the innings, Sri Lanka couldn’t hit even one six during their big total. The Lankans hit only 33 fours through their 50 overs shows how much they worked hard through running between the wickets. Mendis hit 12 fours during his run-a-ball 19 while Avishka hit only 10 fours for his 123-ball 127. In fact, Fernando hit only 6 fours until his hundred and struck four boundaries across his last 12 balls.

Sri Lanka’s total of 345/8 is now the highest in Men’s ODI cricket achieved without hitting a six. They thus broke the record held by England when they made 333/6 against Australia in the 2011 Sydney ODI just prior to the World Cup in India. One of the reasons for Sri Lanka’s failure of hitting sixes was the huge boundaries at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota.

Even Thisara Perera scored 36 off 25 balls at close to 150 strike rate but by hitting only 4 fours. The 345/8 by Sri Lanka is only the 6th 300+ total in Men’s ODI cricket but almost twice the number of such totals have been recorded in this format in Women’s cricket. The first-ever total came during the 1996 Centenary tournament hosted by Kenya. South Africa made 321/8 against Pakistan which was aided by 30 extras.

On two instances, a team posted totals higher than 350 without hitting a six in Women’s ODI cricket. Australia’s total of 412/3 against Denmark in the 1997 CWC remains on the top of this list. The match was marked to have witnessed the first-ever ODI double century coming off Belinda Clark’s bat. Interestingly, on the same day, During an ODI match in 2003 against Japan, Netherlands Women posted 375/5 without hitting a six. Their innings was formed with more than 100 extra runs.

(Stats as on February 26, 2020)