Samoa’s Darius Visser smashes 39 in an over to break T20I record

London, August 20

Darius Visser hit 39 runs in a single over to set a men’s T20 International record and help Samoa to a 10-run victory over Vanuatu in a 2026 World Cup regional qualifier in the capital city of Apia today.

Visser, who scored 132 off 62 balls, was on 46 when Vanuatu’s Nalin Nipiko stepped up to bowl the 15th over, in which the Samoa batter cleared the ropes on six occasions and faced three no balls.

Nipiko bowled a dot ball for the fifth delivery of the over but followed it up with two no balls, with 28-year-old Visser hitting the second of them for a six.

Visser finished with 14 sixes and five fours.

The previous record for the most runs in a T20I over was 36, with India’s Yuvraj Singh, West Indies’ Kieron Pollard and Nepal all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee all having struck six sixes in an over.

Yuvraj hit England’s Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in a 2007 T20 World Cup match, Pollard meted out the same treatment to Sri Lanka’s Akila Dananjaya in 2021, with Airee becoming the third batsman to achieve the feat in April.

The record in ODIs is 36, scored by South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs and US batsman Jaskaran Malhotra.

Visser, who also took the wicket of Vanuatu batter Ronald Tari, powered Samoa to a total of 174, which they were able to defend to claim their second victory in the East Asia-Pacific qualifying tournament.