Herschelle Gibbs created history by becoming the first player to score six sixes in an over in international cricket.
West Indies legend, Sir Garfield Sobers, hit six sixes in an over in a first-class match for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan, way back in 1968. Former India skipper, Ravi Shastri, emulated Sobers by managing six maximums in an over for Bombay against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy in 1985. However, the feat had not been accomplished in international cricket. ODI cricket, considered one of the faster formats of the game, one which provided quite a few opportunities for big six hitters, had to wait for a while before any player managed the 'FullMonty'.
"These days we are seeing more and more big totals and sixes being hit in one-day cricket by powerful batsmen with big bats, yet no-one has ever hit six sixes in one over of any international match," Viv Richards had said. "The only people who have ever done it in first-class cricket are our own Gary Sobers and India's Ravi Shastri and to me this tournament (2007 World Cup), with our traditionally short boundaries, is the time to change that."
The change Richards had hoped for did happen in the 2007 event hosted in the Caribbean, and the batsman to pull off the incredible feat was South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs. Netherlands' leg spinner, Dan van Bunge, happened to be the unfortunate bowler who was at the receiving end.
Put in to bat, South Africa lost AB de Villiers early, but Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis put on a century stand in quick time to give South Africa a solid platform. It was in the 19th over, when Gibbs came to the crease and he appeared in no hurry - rotating the strike and managing a couple of boundaries in between, Gibbs was looking to set himself up for a long innings.
It was all sunshine at St. Kitts Island and the batsmen were basking under it as they accumulated runs at a steady pace, when a storm broke out all of a sudden.
Over long on went the first ball of the 30th over while the region past the long-off fence was the destination were the next two deliveries landed. When Gibbs dispatched the fourth ball of the over way past the midwicket boundary, he knew a record was in store, and there was no holding him back. Bang went the fifth ball over long off while the sixth went sailing over midwicket as Gibbs created history, becoming the first player to score six sixes in an over in international cricket.
Gibbs' outing ended in the next over, when he departed on 72 off 40, with the help of 4 fours and seven sixes. After the game, which South Africa won by an emphatic margin of 221 runs, Gibbs said: "I was lucky the straight boundaries were quite small but the six sixes (feat) was a bonus, it was just nice to get a hit in the middle."
It certainly was nice to get a hit in the middle, a hit that cost the Johnnie Walker group a million dollars, as they had promised to pay that sum to a charity if any player achieved the six sixes feat in the 2007 World Cup.
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