West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard recently became the third cricketer in international cricket to smash 6 sixes in an over in the first T20I against Sri Lanka. He joined the likes of Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa and Yuvraj Singh of India to achieve this feat. Here are a few unique comparison stats of these rare performances.
Except for Gibbs, the two other batsmen fell to a different but similar bowler. Yuvraj, who smashed six sixes in an over from fast bowler Stuart Broad in the 2007 World T20 match against England, fell to medium-pacer Andrew Flintoff. Kieron Pollard, who smashed six sixes in an over from leg-break bowler Akila Dananjaya, fell to leg-spinner PWH de Silva. Only Gibbs, who smashed six sixes in an over from leg-break bowler Daan van Bunge of Netherlands in the 2007 ODI World Cup, fell to medium-pacer Luuk van Troost.
Both Gibbs and Yuvraj smashed 7 sixes exactly in their knock of 72 against the Netherlands in the 2007 World Cup and 58 against England in 2007 World T20 respectively. While Pollard cracked 6 sixes in his knock of 38 against Sri Lanka in 2021.
Gibbs and Yuvraj were awarded man of the match despite not being the top-scorer in their team’s total. But Pollard top-scored for his team, and won the man of the match award.
Both Broad and Dananjaya have claimed hat-tricks in international cricket. For Dananjaya, it came in the same T20I match where he was clobbered for six sixes in an over by Kieron Pollard. Broad has two hat-tricks to his name in Test cricket.
Pollard’s six sixes came while chasing, while Gibbs and Yuvraj’s feats came while setting up a target.
Neither of the three were at the crease when the innings ended.
All the three bowlers bowled just four overs in each of those matches, and each conceded above 56 runs. Daan van Bunge conceded 56 runs off 4 overs, Broad conceded 60 runs off 4 overs, and Dananjaya gave away 62 runs in 4 overs.
Both Broad and Daan van Bunge went wicketless, but only Dananjaya was among the wickets. Dananjaya took three wickets that came off the hat-trick, that too in the very previous over he bowled.
Cover image courtesy: ICC Facebook page
