What is the maximum runs a batter can get off a single, legal over in cricket? The answer was 36 but no one had managed to hit six maximums in first-class cricket till a certain Garry Sobers achieved the feat.
On August 31, 1968, the West Indian batting great scripted history when he became the first batsman to score six sixes in an over. The match was an English County Championship game between Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan. The venue was Swansea and the unfortunate bowler was Malcolm Nash.
Nash was a left-arm seamer, who was asked to bowl spin. But the move backfired spectacularly as Sobers was looking for some quick runs before a declaration. Nash’s spin was clobbered all over the park, with the fifth ball actually going to the fielder, but such was Sobers’s luck that day, it was still spilled over the rope.
Sobers, the Nottinghamshire captain, scored an unbeaten 76 before declaring at 394/5, setting up a 166-run win for his side.
In the years since, many batters have scored six sixes off an over in limited overs cricket, from Hercselle Gibbs to Yuvraj Singh. But only one man has done it in first-class cricket. A certain Ravi Shastri, who hit Baroda left-arm spinner Tilak Raj for six sixes in an over while batting for Bombay in 1985.
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