NEW DELHI: First ball: a single. Next eight balls: six sixes, 41 runs, and a slice of IPL history rewritten. On a Sunday night at Chepauk, Urvil Patel didn’t ease into his innings—he unleashed immediate mayhem.
Chasing 204 for Chennai Super Kings against Lucknow Super Giants in their IPL 2026 fixture, the 26-year-old walked in after Sanju Samson’s dismissal in the fourth over. What followed was one of the most explosive starts the league has ever seen.
He followed with three consecutive maximums off Avesh Khan. Digvesh Rathi sent the ball into the stands repeatedly. Mohammed Shami was not spared either. In the blink of an eye, Urvil raced to a 13-ball half-century—the joint-fastest in IPL history.
Tucked inside that frenzy was another remarkable record. Urvil became the first batter in IPL history to smash six sixes within the first eight balls of an innings. After just eight deliveries, he had already reached 41 not out, easily surpassing the previous best score at that stage, which stood at 33.
To mark the milestone, an emotional Urvil pulled out a handwritten note that read: “This is for you Papa.”
His breathtaking knock ended at 65 off only 23 balls, featuring eight towering sixes, putting CSK firmly in control of the chase. The team eventually sealed victory with four balls to spare.
But for those who know Urvil closely, this was not pure madness—it was the result of meticulous preparation. Three days before the game, the wicketkeeper-batter had already warned his coach.
‘Main dhamaka karunga’
On Sunday night, he delivered exactly what he promised. “He told me, ‘main dhamaka karunga’ exactly three days before the match. He was confident. But that he would create such a big explosion, that I didn’t know,” Urvil’s coach Prakash Patani told TimesofIndia.com.
The aggressive right-hander only earned an extended run in the CSK XI after Ayush Mhatre suffered a hamstring injury. Yet in just four matches, his intent has been unmistakable.
Even before the LSG carnage, signs were already visible. After falling for 4 against Gujarat Titans in his first outing, Urvil bounced back with a blazing 24 off 12 balls against Mumbai Indians, hitting two fours and two sixes. Then came a 9-ball 17 against Delhi Capitals—a modest score on paper, but one that still included two towering sixes.
Attack, regardless of the situation, has been Urvil’s mantra. Noted commentator Ian Bishop summed it up perfectly on air during the DC game: “He is a no-nonsense kind of batter. This is what CSK needed.”
Urvil Patel’s 200-six-a-day obsession
The six-hitting phenomenon Urvil has become is not a product of chance or natural instinct alone—it is the result of deliberate training, discipline, and laser-sharp focus heading into IPL 2026.
Urvil made power-hitting the central focus of his preparation. Behind the scenes, the Gujarat batter followed a brutal training routine built around one staggering target: hitting 200 sixes every single day.
According to coach Prakash Patani, Urvil embraced the challenge relentlessly at the PCCC Academy Cricket Ground near New Gunj Bazar in Palanpur, Gujarat.
“200 sixes he used to hit in a day. That was the kind of preparation he did for IPL 2026. Hitting one or two sixes is fine, but eight consistently at this level is not easy. There’s massive hard work behind this,” Patani said.
“He didn’t miss a single day, and this process went on for more than a month. He used to come at 5 am and practise until 1 or sometimes 2 pm, with short breaks in between. Most of the time, we didn’t even use a bowling machine. I bowled to him with the help of a robo arm. He practised only with Kookaburra balls,” he added.
“There was hunger in him. He was adamant about doing well in this IPL. He always said, ‘mujhe mauka mila hai, kuch logon ko milta hai; main kuch alag karna chahta hoon’ (I’ve got this opportunity, some people get it; I want to do something different).”