It has been 14 years since that night when Yuvraj Singh took on England's Stuart Broad and smashed him all over the park in front of an exhilarated crowd in Kingsmead, Durban, for six sixes in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. India went on to win the title under MS Dhoni's captaincy and Yuvraj's effort against England has gone down as a golden moment in the annals of Indian cricket history. BCCI on Sunday recalled Yuvraj's feat on Twitter to celebrate the 14th anniversary on the match. BCCI posted a gentle reminder of one of the most brutal assaults in white-ball cricket.
"#OnThisDay in 2007, @YUVSTRONG12 went berserk and hammered 6 sixes in an over to score the fastest ever T20I fifty," tweeted BCCI, along with fire and clap emoji.
While the first six sailed over the deep mid-wicket region, the second one was a dismissive shot backward of square. For the third, Yuvraj lofted the ball over extra cover. These three consecutive sixes made Broad switch to around the wicket. But that made no difference to Yuvraj. The fourth ball - a waist-high full toss - was dispatched over deep backward square. For the fifth and sixth sixes, the left-hander went over mid-wicket and long-on, respectively.
Yuvraj reached 50 in 12 balls and his pyrotechnics took India's total to 218 for four. Eventually, India won the match by 18 runs.
For Yuvraj, in some ways, it was also a kind of sweet revenge. Just about a fortnight before that T20 encounter, England's Dimitri Mascarenhas had smashed the Indian all-rounder for five successive sixes in an ODI at the Oval.
The tweet received over 25k likes in no time, and fans of the former India cricketer flooded the comments section.
One user thanked Andrew Flintoff for the feat. Wondering what's the link? Just before the start of the over, the England all-rounder had a verbal duel with Yuvraj which fired up the southpaw. In the span of the next 6 balls, Yuvraj mauled Broad and gave it back to Flintoff and the rest of the England team with his bat.
Another user posted a clip of the spat between Yuvraj and Flintoff.
A third user commended Ravi Shastri, who was then a commentator. "Balle Balle Balle. Awesome Ravi Shastri Commentary," wrote the user.
One other user posted a collage of all the six shots.
14 years later, our excitement reaches a peak even today when we watch those six shots by one of the most glamorous batsmen in Indian cricket.