6 Ball 6 Sixes Record List: International Cricket

Herschelle Gibbs vs the Netherlands (2007)

Image Credits: Subhendu Ghosh /Hindustan Times 

It was the South African hard-hitter who had first shown the world that it was possible at an international level. Only Sir Garfield Sobers and Ravi Shastri had achieved it prior to Gibbs and then the Protean opener repeated the feat after 22 years.

Gibbs achieved it during the 2007 ODI World Cup against the Netherlands. The bowler at the end was Van Burge who was bowling the 30th over of the inning. Being well-settled on the crease since the opening over, Gibbs knew this was the over he could explode and went down the crease to smash Burge over long-on in the very first ball. 

Burge was sent over long on yet again on the second level and after conceding two sixes in a row, he had started bowling awry. Gibbs could see the ball very well and he went with the flow sending the ball outside the next four balls. The game was already shortened by 10 overs owing to rain but Gibbs’ 40 balls and 70 runs helped South Africa tally a whopping 353 runs for the loss of just three wickets.

Herschelle Gibbs was the first player to hit six sixes in a row in ODIs and he held the record in the 50-over format until 2021.

Yuvraj Singh vs England (2007)

Gibbs’ feat, although special, did come against a weaker opponent in which there weren’t many world-class stars. India’s Yuvraj Singh, who also pulled it off during a World Cup tournament, and incidentally the same year, did it against a star-studded England squad. 

Yuvraj would hit six sixes against Stuart Broad, who later went on to become an England cricket legend. The Indian cricket team had entered the 2007 World T20 with a young set of players with all big names being rested after a disappointing 2007 ODI World Cup. And a young MS Dhoni at the helm had Yuvraj Singh to his relief. The southpaw was in unreal form and ended the tournament as Man of the Series.

Image Credits: Duif du Toit/Gallo Images/Getty Images

While all of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup matches were memorable, none came close to the England clash owing to the theatrics. Yuvraj Singh had just clashed with Andrew Flintoff before the fateful over of Broad with the umpire coming to intervene. An enraged Yuvraj took out his anger on the young Brit. 

With India strongly sitting on 173/3 after the 18th over, the southpaw had nothing to lose and he went for it from the get-go. The first ball going over mid-wicket for a six was largely considered normal in the last two overs of a T20 game. However, Yuvraj followed it with four more consecutive sixes - over the square leg, to long-off, towards the deep point and the last one over the square leg. 

The Durban venue was beaming with excitement with Yuvraj Singh on the verge of creating a record. Paul Collingwood was consistently in dialogue with an inexperienced Broad but the hammering had shaken the bowler. Broad bowled a length ball on his last delivery and Yuvraj picked it swiftly over long on. 

Yuvraj became the first batsman to hit six sixes in an over in a T20 international match and India retained the bragging rights for years before West Indian hard hitter Kieron Pollard hit six sixes in 2021, almost 17 years later.

Kieron Pollard vs Sri Lanka (2021)

West Indies were playing Sri Lanka in one of the strangest T20Is in 2021. It was the very first match of the series and a struggling Sri Lankan team had managed to put up a paltry total of 131 runs after batting 20 overs. The pitch had enough juice for the bowlers to leave a mark and Sri Lankan spinners were optimistic of pulling something out of this game.

West Indies started off well by exploiting the field restrictions and hit 21 runs in the first over itself. The Lankans looked in disarray with the match now well beyond their reach when Akila Dananjaya managed to take a hat-trick out of the blue in the fourth over.

The Caribbean batters were exercising caution as they didn’t have many batters left to chase down the target when captain Kieron Pollard came in the middle. Having won multiple titles with IPL side Mumbai Indians and two T20 World Cups with the West Indies national side, he was more than capable of turning things around.

Image Credits: Francois Nel/Getty Images

However, very few expected the towering all-rounder to finish things off this fast. Dananjaya’s hat-trick could keep the contest interesting for just one more over as Pollard picked the bowler for six brutal sixes in the sixth over. Using his Herculean strength, Pollard slogged the first ball over long on and the second one at the sight screen, post which Dananjaya was out of ideas.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth deliveries were sent over long-off, deep mid-wicket straight down the ground and again over deep mid-wicket, respectively. Yuvraj Singh and Gibbs’ elite club had a new member in Pollard whose 11 ball 38 runs saw West Indies chase the target in just 14 overs.   

Jaskaran Malhotra vs Papua New Guinea(2021)

Just like in 2007, when Yuvraj replicated Gibbs’ milestone in a matter of months, Pollard’s heroics were repeated by Jaskaran Malhotra - a Chandigarh-born Indian origin player representing the USA cricket team. 

The USA faced Papua New Guinea when Malhotra hit six sixes against Gaudi Toka. The batsman had already reached his century and looked to be in serious touch when Toka came to bowl that over and was greeted with a humongous six over long-on on the very first ball. 

Jaskaran followed it up with sixes all over the ground that ranged from over the covers to the long off. His fear of hitting six sixes in an over brought his run tally to 150 runs in that particular innings. He eventually ended his knock with a remarkable 173-run tally in 124 balls as USA tallied 271 runs in the 50-over match. The side eventually won by a huge margin of 135 runs. 

With IPL 2024 seeing teams reaching the scoreboard and crossing the 250-run mark quite often, hitting six-sixes might not remain a crazy phenomenon in the future. KKR’s Rinku Singh's five sixes in the last over to win a match is further proof of the same. However, the two names of Yuvraj and Gibbs will forever remain in cricket folklore for exhibiting power hitting at a time when cricket wasn’t as used to T20 cricket as it is today.