When we talk about cricket, we all love to see someone play an amazing inning – be it smashing sixes off every bowler, bowlers bowling deadly toe-crushing yorkers, a thrilling match which comes down to the last ball of the innings or a superhuman fielding effort. Scoring a ton or hundred runs is an amazing feat in itself but to do it in an important match or a grand stage is even more of a marvelous task. It takes unimaginable concentration and stamina to make it through it, not to mention the nerves to do it in front of thousands of watchers in the stadium and millions who are watching the match virtually. People have taken it to the next level with players scoring even a double, triple, or a four-fold century.
These all are superhuman achievements however they have been scored in tests or One Day International matches. Then what about Twenty-Twenty matches which consist of only 20 overs or 120 balls, is it even enough for a half-century or 50 runs? Sure, there have been a lot of them but we all know what pleases the crowd and hypes them up to go even crazier? A trailblazing half-century that takes place when the team needs it the most? These are the plays that make the watchers scream with delight and ask for more.
Marcus Stoinis recently scored another amazing half-century off only 17 deliveries, this made us remember some old memories. So today let’s have a look at the fastest half-century in the T-20 World Cup. This was scored in the T-20 World Cup of 2007, till date there have been half-centuries that came close to this but to this date, this record has remained unbroken. That’s how solid it has stood, even after 15 years, when T-20 has been evolving at an increasing rate this record remains to be broken. It was scored by none other than the sixth machine, Yuvraj Singh! This Punjabi batsman has shocked the world multiple times and taken the team to the top of ICC team ranking, but this time it was special.
During the T-20 World Cup of 2007, he was named as the Vice Captain of Team India while newbie Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the Captain. Also, it is worth mentioning that this was the inaugural T-20 Cup. A masterclass knocks such as this, that too in the very first World Cup in twenty-twenty cricket meant the quick and fast growth of this format at that time. This knock holds a special place in the hearts of every Indian. The match was against England which was a force to be reckoned with during that time. With big names such as James Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, and Paul Collingwood, England boasted of a star-studded line-up.
Details: This match which was held on 17th September 2007 also holds another record which we shall look at later. In the match, India was put to bat first and they scored a staggering 218 with a loss of four wickets. During the match, Yuvi had a spat with Stuart Broad and later smashed him for six sixes off his over. A six off every ball and these were consecutive boundaries. This was the first time it happened in a match between two test-playing nations, although it has happened earlier in senior cricket. This was important as these two sides were no strangers to cricket and smashing six sixes is no small feat. These six sixes were huge mental anguish to England as 36 runs conceded off a single over was mammoth.
Later came the fastest half-century yet, that too only off 12 balls. Even if a player were to score consecutive fours off the first 12 balls he/she faced, it wouldn’t have been possible but only the six machine could do the impossible. Also, this match was the debut of Rohit Sharma, someone who would eventually lead the Indian side in the same world cup of T-20 years later.
This match was a high scoring one where both sides’ batsmen were scoring boundaries off every other ball. The first powerplay or the first 6 overs ended with India scoring 48 runs and the then openers, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were on point that day. England struggled to pick a wicket and eventually did in the 15th over of the match. Viru was bowled by Tremlett and then the wickets started falling, Gautam Gambhir succumbed to a bowl by Maddy which was caught by Stuart Broad in the very next over. Then, Robin Uthappa fell in the next year after that.
Then, Yuvraj Singh took over the reins and went wild on the bowlers after that, Stuart Broad goes without saying. The six sixes dealt a mental blow to the entire team England and they couldn’t recover after that. There was a bit of recovery at the start of the second innings as England scored 50 in just 5.2 overs and it looked like the game was still in their hands however they crumbled at 200 runs.
India won this crucial match with ease but more importantly, Yuvi had shown that he could handle pressure and keep putting those balls for boundaries even in the back end of the innings after coming in the final 4-5 overs and still be able to score a half-century.
This match was one of those matches which went on to become associated with him. Yuvraj Singh- six sixes off an over. This half-century was not only the fastest but also a career-defining one in Yuvraj Singh’s career. This was also a match to remember for Stuart Broad as he was associated with the very same match but differently, although he said that the match transformed him and made something out of him, at that time it wasn’t easy to deal with the media and most of all, to face himself and the team of England. This match went down in history as one of the most iconic T-20 International matches of all time and will continue as one of the gems of Yuvraj Singh’s legacy.
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