One of the hardest achievements in cricket is hitting six sixes in an over as only a few players have succeeded to achieve this feat in the professional career. On Sunday (5th January), during a domestic T20 cricket match in New Zealand, Leo Carter became the fourth T20 batsman to smash six sixes in an over.
It was the match between Northern Districts and Canterbury at Christchurch in the Super Smash 2019/20. Northern Districts managed to score 219/7 (20 overs) after deciding to bat first. Two Kiwi international players, opener Tim Seifert (74 runs) and the skipper Dean Brownlie (55 runs) played important roles in that innings.
In reply, Canterbury batted steadily, but they still needed 64 runs to win in the last five overs, and they had seven wickets in hands. Ahead of the 16th over of that chasing, Joe Carter was batting on 11 runs off 12 balls. However, the 27-year-old changed the entire situation of the game in the 16th over of that innings when he successfully smashed six sixes to the left-arm spinner Anton Devcich, who played 12 ODIs and four T20Is for New Zealand between 2013 and 2016.
The right-handed batsman Joe Carter was unstoppable in that over as he hit those sixes over the backward square leg, deep mid-wicket, deep mid-wicket, deep square leg, long-on and deep square leg respectively.
Here is the video of that amazing game-changing over
Devcich to Leo carter
6 sixes in an over
amazing innings while chasing 220. pic.twitter.com/tUUZo5BUNe— Heisenberg (@RitwikBittu) January 5, 2020
Other batsmen to hit six sixes in an over
After that over, Joe Carter became the fourth batsman to hit six sixes in an over in a T20 match. Only the former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who was the first batsman to achieve this feat, is the man who smashed six sixes in an over during a T20I match.
Here are the names of the batsmen who hit six sixes in an over during a T20 match
| Batsman (Team) | Bowler (Team) | Year |
| Yuvraj Singh (India) | Stuart Broad (England) | 2007 |
| Ross Whiteley (Worcestershire) | Karl Carver (Yorkshire) | 2017 |
| Hazratullah Zazai (Kabul Zwanan) | Abdullah Mazari (Balkh Legends) | 2018 |
| Leo Carter (Canterbury) | Anton Devcich (Northern Districts) | 2020 |
However, in international cricket, former South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs was the first batsman to smash six sixes in an over (against the Netherlands leg-spinner Dan van Bunge), and that was in an ODI match (during Group Stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007).
In the first-class cricket, Garry Sobers (in 1968) and Ravi Shastri (in 1985) also hit six sixes in an over for once each.
Leo Carter guided to the victory
Leo Carter scored unbeaten 70 runs off just 29 balls (3 fours and 7 sixes), and captain Cole McConchie was also not out at the end on 49 runs off only 25 balls as Canterbury chased down that target in 18.5 overs after losing three wickets (222/3). Canterbury won that match by seven wickets. Opener Chad Bowes also scored 57 runs off 31 balls in that successful chasing.
Meanwhile, Anton Devcich had the bowling figures of 4-0-61-0 – the new record of most expensive T20 bowling figures for Northern Districts.