After his historic innings against Qatar, Dipendra rose in the latest ICC Rankings
The Nepal Weekly 
April 23, 2024
Nepal’s all-rounder cricket player Dipendra Singh Airee, rose in the latest ICC Rankings following his historic innings against Qatar, during which he hit six sixes in an over. Airee, the 24-year-old entered the record books becoming the third batter to hit sixes in an over in an international T20 game on Saturday, April 13.
Airee joined India’s Yuvraj Singh and West Indies’ Kieron Pollard to become the third batter to bag the feat in Men’s T20Is. Yuvraj was the first to do so in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2007 off Stuart Broad while Pollard joined him in 2021 by smashing Akila Dananjaya for six sixes in Coolidge.
He has done a good ground in both the T20I batter rankings and all-rounder rankings that were published on Wednesday. He improved a total of 16 places to equal 61st on the T20I batters, while he rose to 14 spots to 11th on the T20I all-rounders list.
The in-form all-rounder wasn’t the only player from Nepal to make ground in the latest rankings update. Teammate Aasif Sheikh moved up 36 spots to 75th on the list for T20I batters following a hat-trick of good scores at the same tournament.
The 22-year-old opener produced scores of 32, 52, and 40 in consecutive matches against Malaysia, Qatar, and Hong Kong, respectively, leading to a new career-high rating as a result of his good form.
In the meantime, Kushal Malla has also been in decent touch for Nepal lately. The 20-year-old rose five places to equal 27th on the updated T20I all-rounder rankings, elevated by an innings of 35 and a wicket against Qatar.
According to Espn Cricinfo, Airee achieved the feat in the last over against Qatar in their ACC Men’s Premier Cup match in Al Amerat on Saturday. Starting the over on 28 off 15 balls, with Nepal on 174 for 7, Airee smashed medium pacer Kamran Khan for sixes off each delivery to end on 64 from 21, and took Nepal to 210 for 7, Cricinfo wrote on its website.
“Airee had scored 52 not out in ten balls that day as Nepal put up a mammoth 314 for 3 and then bowled Mongolia out for 41. It was the first 300-plus team total in a T20I match, and the nine balls Airee took to get the fastest-ever T20I fifty in history, topping the mark of 12 held by Yuvraj, Chris Gayle and Hazratullah Zazai.”
