Yuvraj Singh and Ravi Shastri, the Indians in Kieron Pollard’s ‘six sixes’ club

West Indies T20 captain Kieron Pollard joined a rare group of batsmen who managed to hit six sixes in one over and an even rarer group when it comes to doing it in international cricket. The first batsman to achieve this feat in T20 international was none other than India’s Yuvraj Singh. 

The Punjab southpaw achieved this in the famous 2007 World Twenty20 match against England at the Kingsmead Stadium in Durban. Yuvraj managed to tear apart young England paceman Stuart Broad, clobbering him to all corners of Durban. 

Over the course of the innings, Yuvraj scored the fastest-ever T20 international fifty off just 12 deliveries. The event was memorable because Herschelle Gibbs had done the same to Daan van Bunge of Netherlands in a 2007 World Cup game in the Caribbean. 

Yuvraj and Gibbs remains the only two batsmen to achieve the feat in international cricket apart from Pollard, who managed this in the first T20 against Sri Lanka on Thursday (March 4). In fact, all three of them are either former or current Mumbai Indians batsmen. 

Pollard or Polly is still an active member of the Mumbai Indians franchise, having led the team in IPL 2020 when regular skipper Rohit Sharma was out injured. Yuvraj Singh congratulated Pollard for joining the club. "Welcome to the club @KieronPollard55 #sixsixes you beauty !!!" Yuvraj tweeted.

Welcome to the club @KieronPollard55 #sixsixes you beauty !!! — Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) March 4, 2021

Shastri’s moment in 1985 

But the first Indian to achieve the record of hammering six sixes in an over belongs to current Team India head coach Ravi Shastri. The former India all-rounder belted Baroda left-arm spinner Tilak Raj in another record-breaking knock back in 1985. 

Shastri’s performance came in a Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Baroda, with Raj playing under Shastri’s India teammate Kiran More. The Mumbai batsman was fresh from his Audi-winning man-of-the-series performance in 1985 World Series and became only the second batsman after West Indies legend Sir Gary Sobers to achieve this record. 

While most batsmen have achieved this record against spin bowlers, Yuvraj was the only one to do it against a top-class fast bowler like Stuart Broad. However, Pollard’s show is no mean feat as Sri Lankan off-spinner Akila Dananjaya had just picked up a hat-trick in his previous over in the match.