Hyderabad: On September 19, 2007, former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh displayed what he is capable of against England pacer Stuart Broad who found himself at the receiving end of his ruthless strokeplay after the latter's teammate's altercation with the Indian southpaw in the inaugural T20 World Cup at Durban in South Africa.
The flamboyant left-hand batter whacked six consecutive sixes off the then 21-year-old and etched his name in record books becoming the only player to hit six sixes in the T20 World Cup and the first in the T20 international cricket. The Indian batter also became the second player to achieve the feat in international cricket after Herschelle Gibbs.
Yuvraj walked into bat with India on 155/3 after 16.4 overs, providing India with a much-needed boost in the death overs. He got a blazing start scoring three boundaries in his first six balls and moved to 14 runs. However, a verbal chat with England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff completely changed his mindset and awakened the sleeping beast inside him.
As Broad marked his runup to bowl the penultimate over of the innings, a geared-up southpaw was desperate to go after him as Yuvraj’s flashing willow cut Flintoff’s ego into pieces by the end of this over.
The right-arm pacer ran in to bowl the over, being totally unaware of what he was going to witness which eventually turned out to be the worst nightmare of his life come true right before his eyes. The youngster tried everything, from switching sides to varying his pace, and bowling bouncer to yorker, but the result of every ball was the same as Yuvraj made the boundary ropes disappear, with his massive shots which went soaring into the night sky and landed in the crowd one after the other.
Former Indian cricketer and coach Ravi Shastri made the moment even more memorable with his commentary fitting perfectly with Yuvraj’s assault on Broad. The southpaw launched his six sixes in the regions of cow corner, deep square leg, long off, and deep point, sending the crowd into a frenzy. He returned to the pavilion after his explosive 58 off 16 balls as India went on to score 218/4 in their allotted 20 overs, their first-ever 200+ runs total, and won the match by 18 runs. Yuvraj was deservedly adjudged Player of the Match for his breathtaking innings.