Rashid Khan smashed a quickfire and unbeaten 32-ball 79 to register the highest-ever score by a No. 8 batter in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL).

Afghan Voice Agency(AVA)_Monitoring, After winning the toss, Gujarat Titans asked Mumbai Indians to bat. Powered by Suryakumar Yadav’s maiden IPL century, Mumbai posted a daunting 218 for five in the first innings, The Hindu reported.

Mumbai’s Impact Player Akash Madhwal made early inroads for his side, dismissing Wriddhiman Saha in the second over. Rohit Sharma’s bowlers then found breakthroughs at regular intervals as Titans were left reeling at 100 for seven.

What could’ve been a damaging loss for Gujarat turned out to be a close shave following Rashid’s swashbuckling knock that included three fours and 10 sixes.

Rashid bettered Pat Cummins’ score of 66, who had come in at No. 8 for Kolkata Knight Riders against Chennai Super Kings during an IPL 2021 fixture at the same venue.

Earlier in the first innings, Rashid scalped four wickets to overtake Rajasthan Royals’ Yuzvendra Chahal in the Purple Cap list this season. Rashid has 23 wickets under his belt.

Former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel hailed Rashid’s knock as the best innings by a lower-middle-order batter in a long time while adding that the GT star denied MI a big win in IPL 2023. 

“Rashid Khan, the bowler, and Rashid Khan, the batter, both turned up. It was an outstanding knock. I think the game was almost done. But he had other plans. The Mumbai Indians wanted a big win but they had Rashid in the way. To me, it’s the best innings that a lower middle-order batter has played in a long, long time. The kind of six-hitting we saw was unbelievable,” Parthiv said while speaking on JioCinema.