Ravindra Jadeja might be out of out of the scheme of things in ODI and T20 cricket at the moment, but there is no doubt about his credentials as a limited-overs player. In the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) Inter-State T20 tournament opener, playing for Jamnagar, he smashed 6 sixes in an over in his 154* off 69 balls.
It was the 15th over of Jamnagar innings. Nilam Vamja of Amreli was bowling to Sir Jadeja when he smoked all 6 out of the park. Jadeja’s blitzkrieg innings included 15 fours and 10 maximums. It pushed Jamnagar’s score to a massive 239/6. In reply, Amreli stood no chance and could muster only 118/5 on the board from their 20 overs handing Jamnagar an emphatic 121-run win.
Till 2007, no one had achieved this feat before Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh did it in the same year. Gibbs smashed Netherland’s Daan Van Bunge for 6 sixes in a 2007 World Cup game at St.Kitts. 6 months after, Yuvraj did the same to Stuart Broad at Kingsmead, Durban in the inaugural edition of WT20.
Garry Sobers and Ravi Shastri are the others who have done that at First-Class level. Sobbers hit Malcolm Nash out of the park 6 times in a row playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Trent Bridge in 1968 while Shastri did it in a Bombay vs Baroda game in 1984.
England opener Alex Hales has also achieved the same feat in a different way. In a 2015 Natwest Blast Game between Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, Hales hit Boyd Rankin out of the park on 4th, 5th, and 6th ball. In next over when he got the strike when again hit 3 gigantic sixes to make it 6 outta 6!
Jadeja has been picked for the test matches against South Africa. India plays South Africa in 3 tests, 6 ODIS and 3 T20Is from January 5 to February 24.
– by Atharva Apte
