Essex all-rounder Graham Napier [ Images ] equalled the record for the number of sixes in a first-class ininngs when he struck 16 in a county match against Surrey on Thursday.

Napier cleared the boundary 16 times and hit 19 fours in a knock of 196 off 130 balls on the second day of the county championship game at Whitgift School in Croydon.

Australian Andrew Symonds [ Images ] struck 16 sixes for Gloucestershire against Glamorgan in 1995.

Napier, 31, is playing his first first-class game since June after suffering a back injury last season.

He also holds the record for number of sixes in Twenty20 [ Images ] cricket, hitting 16 in an innings of 152 against Sussex in 2008.