India, Nov. 13 -- Akash Kumar Choudhary, a name not known to many a week ago, is now the toast of the town, and every avid cricket fan is talking about his mind-boggling achievement. The right-handed batter from Meghalaya, who classifies himself as a bowling all-rounder, smacked eight sixes in a row to register the fastest half-century in the history of first-class cricket, surpassing Leicestershire's Wayne White, who had taken 12 balls to achieve the milestone.

All of the big hits off the bat of Akash came over long-off and long-on against Arunachal Pradesh in a Ranji Plate game in Surat. He became just the third player in first-class cricket to hit consecutive six 6s in an over, after Garry Sober and Ravi Shastri. It is worth mentionin...