19th September 2007 was a memorable day for all the cricket fans. A brutal and effortless assault from one of the leading batsmen of the game resulted in many new records. It was the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa and India and England met each other in their second-round matches. Only a few months back Herschelle Gibbs became the first batsman to hit six sixes in an over in international cricket to light up the otherwise dull 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean. The legendary all-rounder Gary Sobers was the first man to achieve this feat in First-Class cricket which was later followed by Ravi Shastri, the Indian all-rounder.
This time it was another all-rounder. And interestingly like Sobers and Shastri, Yuvraj Singh was also a left-hand batsman and left-arm slow bowler. Yuvraj had a glittering career with many career highlights including the 2002 Natwest final, 2011 World Cup and masterminding some of the great chases for India along with MS Dhoni. On this day he lighted up the Kingsmead in Durban with his astonishing hitting.
India batted first and had a good start as their openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir both scored fifties and added 136 runs for the first wicket. When Yuvraj entered after the fall of the third wicket with the score on 155 he had 20 balls in his disposal. In those early days of T20 cricket, people were hoping for India to reach 180 plus but Yuvraj’s innings changed everything. He started confidently and sent the second delivery he faced to cover the boundary. 18th over bowled by Andrew Flintoff saw Yuvraj hitting two back to back four. It also changed the mood as a cheeky Flintoff said something which upset Yuvraj and he had to stop by his partner MS Dhoni and the umpires to go towards Flintoff aggressively. Yuvraj was on strike batting on 14 off six balls. And an angry Yuvraj faced Stuart Broad who had come up the ranks in English cricket and established himself as one of the young talented English pacers.
For Yuvraj, nothing mattered that day. The first ball went over the cow corner, the second one over backward square leg, third one over extra cover, fourth one over point, fifth one over mid-wicket and finally the sixth one went over the wide mid-on. 36 runs were scored. The entire English team management including the captain Collingwood, bowler Broad, and others were flabbergasted as Ravi Shastri was ecstatic in the commentary box. Yuvraj completed his fifty with his sixth six of that over and it came in just 12 balls, a record in international cricket. He finally was dismissed for 58 off 16 balls as India posted a massive 218/4. England tried hard but eventually fell 18 runs short making it a memorable night for the Indians and Yuvraj.
