What does it take to hit 11 sixes in an innings?

Brute strength? Definitely an advantage but not a necessity.

The gift of timing? Essential, but by itself not enough.

A flat surface? An advantage, but the batter still has to muscle it away across the boundary.

Poor bowling? Again, it helps, but the ball still needs to be put away.

On Saturday, at the picturesque Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Tawhid Hridoy smashed the ball over the ropes 11 times.

He had begun his knock the day before, crawling to 29 off 80 with the help of just two fours.

The 25-year-old was trying to consolidate the innings with the experienced Mushfiqur Rahim after the fall of three early wickets.

He, perhaps, was also trying to make amends for what had happened in the previous Test. 

In Dhaka, Hridoy came up with scores of 42 and 0, as the hosts lost the game by eight wickets.

Pinning the defeat on Hridoy would be a stretch, as amid a batting failure, he had at least scored some runs in the first innings.

But it was the manner of his dismissals that put him in hot water.

In the first innings, after batting responsibly for 42, closing in on his maiden Test half-century in his second Test, Hridoy fell victim to severe cramps and had to be stretchered out.

On the second morning, he returned to the crease, but had seemingly left the previous day’s composure back at the hotel room, playing down the wrong line off a fullish delivery from off-spinner Joshua Bishop and lost his stumps without adding to his overnight score.

His dismissal was part of the seven-wicket collapse for just 51 runs.

In the second innings, he came to the middle with the team two down for 28. The situation demanded caution, but Hridoy chose to throw it to the wind.

On the second ball he faced, he walked across the stumps and tried to smash off-spinner Roston Chase for half a dozen over long-on, only to slice his shot and get caught at deepish mid-on.

Two poor dismissals against spin and a plethora of questions about his Test credentials – that’s what Hridoy took away from the match.

He would’ve likely lost his place for the Sylhet Test, had Mominul Haque, who was out concussed on Day 3 of the Dhaka Test, not been unavailable for selection due to concussion protocols.

With Amite Hasan waiting in the shadows with bags of runs in domestic red-ball cricket, his performance in the Sylhet Test was likely to determine whether his Test career progresses or gets put on pause.

On the second day, with the loss of early wickets and Shadman out after twisting his ankle while fielding, Bangladesh and Hridoy, were under the cosh.

Hridoy soaked up the pressure well alongside Mushfiqur and the duo took the hosts to stumps on 88-3.

The duo resumed the innings on Saturday. Mushfiqur hung around for a while before departing on 34, Litton Das hit two fours and promptly returned to the dressing room, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz, failed to emerge as the crisis man, making just 16.

Hridoy stood at the other end, having completed his maiden Test half-century, and watched the carnage.

Soon the seventh wicket fell – Hasan Mahmud on one – and the prospect of running out of partners became very real for Hridoy.

Shadman was not to bat in the first innings due to injury, leaving effectively just two wickets in hand for the hosts.

The scoreboard read 184-7, still 172 runs adrift of West Indies’ first innings score.

Hridoy by then had accumulated 81 runs, and the prospect of a maiden Test century was very real.

With his back to the wall, Hridoy attempted what he hadn’t done in his innings till then.

He tried to hit a six.

West Indies skipper Chase was bowling, the same bowler who got him out for a duck in the last game.

Hridoy walked across his stumps, just as he had done in the previous innings, but this time rather than targeting the straight boundary, he hit the ball towards cow corner, where there was no fielder at the boundary.

Targeting that region gave him a safety net, even if mishit the ball, it would likely fall in no man’s land.

But he didn’t mishit. The ball came off the sweetest part of his willow and sailed over the gallery, giving the disheartened local fans something to cheer about.

And after dispatching the first six, the shackles broke.

Hridoy completed his maiden ton at the stroke of Lunch, with 11 fours and one six.

It seemed like a consolation century, one that would give Bangladesh something to cheer about before West Indies inevitably take a handsome lead and seize complete control over the match.

But little did anyone know, Hridoy was just getting started.

After the break, a different Hridoy returned to the crease. The time for caution had passed, calculated aggression was what was required, and Hridoy responded.

He expertly merged swashbuckling stroke-making with astute game sense, shielding Taijul Islam as much as possible as he kept smashing the bowlers all across the ground.

It was a straightforward tactic: try to hit as many boundaries in the first four deliveries of the over as possible and then rotate the strike and hope Taijul held up his end of the bargain.

This partnership lasted for 167 deliveries and added 117 runs to the total, of which 92 came off of Hridoy’s blade.

The right-hander kept bringing down his bat from his trademark high back lift and striking the ball in tremendous force, dispatching them for fours and sixes, as the West Indians looked on helplessly.

Having reached 173, and the prospects of a double century looking likely, Taijul dragged his feet off the line against Jomel Warrican and got stumped on 22.

The last man Taskin Ahmed joined Hridoy, who carried on with the same strategies, declining running singles and searching for the boundary ball at the start of the overs, before turning the strike over to Taskin for the final one or two deliveries.

He broke this pattern in the final over before Tea, charging down the track to hit Warrican for a straight six, and edging the ball through the vacant slip region for a four in the final two balls before the break.

Early in the third session, he became the fourth Bangladeshi to hit a Test double-hundred, first to convert a maiden Test ton to a double.

And after that, Hridoy really started teeing off, standing his ground, making minimal feet movement and heaving the ball across the boundary, hitting four more sixes to take his score to 242 – the highest ever for a Bangladeshi in Tests.

West Indies’ woes finally ended when Jordan Seales managed to get Taskin caught off a bouncer.

Hridoy walked back to the dressing room, physically drained, but with his head held high, having proved just how special a talent he is.

He finished with 22 fours and 11 sixes, all hit with power, using the proper technique, while taking full toll of a flat pitch and some sub-standard bowling.

But what really took to hit those 11 sixes was heart, the heart to forget what had happened less than a week ago, the heart to take on the same bowlers who had bested him so recently and the heart to fight on when most would have surrendered.