Tim David is an elite six hitter. In his 52-match IPL career, he has hit more sixes than fours – 69 to 58. So far in IPL 2026, he has faced just 35 balls and has nine sixes. He hit eight of them in Bengaluru on Sunday in a barely believable 17-ball sequence, which neither the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowlers nor anyone present at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is likely to forget.
When David came on, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were 10.70 runs ahead. Rajat Patidar was batting on a different plane and that gave David time to adjust. It took four balls to get off the mark and then on the second ball of the 17th over, both batsmen were dismissed.
David’s show was about to begin.
The score at this stage was 174 for 3 after 16.2 overs. David was 3 for 6, Patidar was 40 for 15. When Patidar scored the next strike, the score had shot up to 237 for 3 after 19, David had advanced to 65 for 23 and there was a party in the Chinnaswamy stands. In these 17 balls, David had hit eight sixes and two fours to turn the innings around so dramatically that a score that at one point seemed in the range of 220 became 250. CSK were “shocked”.
“The real turning point was Tim David in the last over, the acceleration in the last five overs,” CSK coach Stephen Fleming said after the match. “If you look at the score, we were ahead of them with five overs left. [after 15, CSK were 165 for 6, RCB were 153 for 3]and then they were gone like a rocket. So that’s where we really lost the game. Up until that point, I thought it was a relatively close competition.”
However, for CSK it could have been very different. In the 18th over, Anshul Kamboj beat David with a yorker that broke his leg stump. The raucous celebration in Kamboj’s face was met with a grateful fist bump from David. A few seconds later the siren sounded throughout the stadium. Kamboj had gone too far.
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David hit the free for six at long on and then took 30 runs from Jamie Overton’s third over, the sequence of which read 6, 2, 4, 6, 6, 6. The second six of that over gave David his fifty off 21 balls. The last six were deposited at deep mid-wicket and on the roof, 106 meters away. David looked towards the locker room and flexed his muscles; Virat Kohli had gotten up from his chair and Chinnaswamy had gone crazy.
“I’ve gotten into trouble training with the boys,” David said of the six. “We have competitions to try to hit them on the roof and obviously we’re on the side fields. So to take one out during a game in the middle and help him get up on the roof, it was a lot of fun.”
David finished with 70 not out off 25 balls; 68 of those came in the death overs, the most by any batsman in IPL history. “It doesn’t always happen like that. Captain Rajat was absolutely smoking and I was taking balls away from him so he could lead us to score and obviously put a lot of pressure on the opponent, it was super, super fun.”
In 2025, David was sixth in the list of plus sixes: 94 in 46 innings. He hit 14 of them in 101 balls in the IPL, where, as a finisher, he was instrumental in giving RCB their first title. But behind this six-hit madness, David explained that the work behind the scenes has been immense.
“It’s a big part of the preparation we do here,” David said. “[I am] Very lucky to be able to work with DK. [Dinesh Karthik]He’s obviously an incredibly experienced player in these conditions, and we’re working on a lot of different things. You still have the basics on which you build your strengths and then try to improve. I have been in the IPL [for] It’s been a few years now and I think that you too, with that preparation and that time, don’t put so much pressure on yourself to perform.
“I try to enjoy it on the good days and obviously there will be some bad ones, but that’s the game, especially when we’re trying to play high-risk attacking cricket.”
David’s skills have earned him the respect of his captain, who called him “one of the best finishers I have ever seen”, as well as his other RCB teammates.
“He is very confident in his technique and the areas he wants to attack,” Devdutt Padikkal said of David. “When he comes out, he’s very clear and understands which pitcher he needs to target and where. When you have those plans in place and that clarity is in your head, I think it makes it a lot easier.
“I’d like to be able to hit close to what he hits, but just looking at the technique he has, obviously you can try to learn things. It’s about self-confidence and the confidence you have to go from the first ball. If you can emulate that confidence, I think it will carry over to everyone on the team as well.”
The four months have not been one bit easier for David. He was ruled out of the Big Bash League with a hamstring injury in late December. While he recovered in time for the 2026 T20 World Cup, he managed only 0 and 6 in the two innings he batted at number 4 as Australia crashed out in the group stage.
But if anyone felt that David was coming into the IPL underprepared, there is a ball lodged in Chinnaswamy’s roof that might say otherwise.