It was a nightmare for the England fans, not to mention how hard those 15 minutes were for their pacer, a young Stuart Broad, who by the start of the 2007 T20 World Cup had just started to put his legs in an international career. Yuvraj Singh, the left-handed brutal Indian batter, could have finished the career of Broad even before it started, at the Kingsmead Stadium in Durban.
India made an exciting start in their group game against the Paul Collingwood-led side with a 136-run opening stand between two half-centurions, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, as both of the openers smashed the ball all around the park.
But the MS Dhoni-led side lost his way in the middle overs when Andrew Flintoff was engaged in a fierce chat with Yuvraj Singh, which the latter didn’t receive on a positive note, as he fired up in the very next over of the innings when the Nottinghamshire-bowler marked his run-up.
“It could’ve been seven sixes!!”- Stuart Broad on Yuvraj Singh missing another record
Yuvraj Singh smashed the first ball of the over out of the park for a six, before nailing the second delivery over the square leg region for consecutive sixes. The third ball was into the slot and helped into his way over long-on for another half-a-dozen.
Stuart Broad decided to make a tactical change and switched over the wicket but could only come up with a low full toss wide of the batter, who cut it through point for another six. The fifth ball was again into the hitting zone of the batter and ended in the result.
After a long conference with his team-mates, Broad goes for another ball into the straight line, and it was bashed into the crowd for the sixth consecutive six as Yuvraj Singh celebrated his T20I fifty in just 12 balls, which was the fastest at that point of the time.
A few days ago, it was the celebration of 17 years after the incident, as Stuart Broad, who had already taken his retirement from the game as one of the greats of England’s red-ball bowlers, was forced to see the clip of the over.
The veteran believed that the full toss he bowled on the fourth ball might have been incorrectly called a legal ball by the umpire. Had he deemed it as the waist-high no-ball, the medium pacer predicted that Yuvraj Sigh could have potentially smashed the seventh six of the over, extending the record-breaking feat.
“I‘ve never watched that back, but I must admit, I got lucky to get away with a no-ball. It could’ve been seven sixes! I’ve never watched it. So thank you for the opportunity 17 years on.” Broad recalled the nightmarish evening in Durban while commenting on the first ODI between England and Australia.
India went on to make 218/4 in their allotted 20 overs, as Yuvraj Singh smashed 58 runs in 16 balls with the help of seven sixes and three boundaries with a strike rate of over 360. England’s batters started well but couldn’t carry on from that point and ended with 200/6, as they lost the encounter with 18 runs.
The left-handed batter finished the tournament with 148 runs in five innings at a strike rate of nearly 200, while the Blue Brigade went on to clinch the T20 title of the inaugural edition.