On this day: Herschelle Gibbs’ six sixes in 2007 World Cup

Hitting six sixes in an over in any format of the game does bring a lot of excitement into the fans and not many players have managed to achieve the feat. While Yuvraj Singh and Kieron Pollard have achieved the special feat in T20Is, Herschelle Gibbs was the first to hit six sixes in an international game. The South African batter teed off in the 2007 World Cup fixture against the Netherlands.

Gibbs, who has managed to pull off some unthinkable catches, showed his prowess with the bat as he took on the bowler Daan van Bunge to the cleaners in the 30th over of the game. Gibbs was tough to stop once he gets into his groove, and was capable to hit the long ball on a consistent basis. On that day, the right-hander, who had opened the batting mostly for the Proteas, was assigned a different role at No. 4 and he straightaway made an impact.

South Africa race to 353

Gibbs hit boundaries in all directions and bludgeoned them with brute power. His 40-ball 72-run knock comprised of four fours and seven sixes, and his runs came at a strike rate of 180 as he helped South Africa post a massive total on the board in their first innings. Jacques Kallis scored an unbeaten century while Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher scored half-centuries to take the total to 353 in 40 overs.

Gibbs’ clinical hitting earned him the player of the match. The magnitude of the feat and the immense level of concentration and ball-striking abilities required to pull of such a feat can be understood by the fact that Gibbs is still the only player to have hit six sixes in a 50-over international game. Gibbs played 248 ODIs for South Africa from 1996 to 2010 and scored 8094 runs in his 50-over career.