Worcestershire’s Ross Whiteley hit six sixes in an over on Sunday to join a select group who’ve performed the feat in senior cricket.
Whiteley struck Yorkshire left-arm spinner Karl Carver for six sixes — a total of 36 runs — during the 16th over of Worcestershire’s innings in an English Twenty20 match at Headingley.
But he fell for 65 off 26 balls as Worcestershire finished on 196 for seven in a 37-run defeat.
Yorkshire’s David Willey, the England all-rounder, earlier made 118 that included 34 runs off one over from Australia paceman John Hastings.
West Indies great Garry Sobers was the first batsman to hit six sixes in an over in first-class cricket when, playing for Nottinghamshire, he performed the feat against Glamorgan’s Malcolm Nash in a County Championship match at Swansea in 1968.
Since then India’s Ravi Shastri, South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs and India’s Yuvraj Singh have all matched that achievement in either first-class, one-day or Twenty20 cricket.
And in 2013, Lancashire batsman Jordan Clark struck six sixes in an over during a 2nd XI match against arch-rivals Yorkshire at Scarborough.
“It was the right time in the game for me to go for it,” said Whiteley.
“It was all or nothing. Unfortunately for the bowler it was a short boundary on the leg-side.
“I had the mentality that I was going to go for it before I got in. I hit the first out of the screws and needed to keep going for the team, not for that achievement.
“It’s something I never really thought I’d do in professional cricket.”
The 28-year-old added: “Personal milestones are great, but it’s hard to get away from the defeat. It’s pretty tough to take. We’ve lost four out of five and are right down at the bottom.”
Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale said captain Tim Bresnan — Gale’s brother-in-law — had bowled Carver at the wrong stage of the innings.
“I blame poor captaincy for that,” he said. “He shouldn’t have bowled him at that part of the game.
“I felt for Karl, he’s got a good record in T20 cricket and he’ll bounce back,” Gale added.
“Ross nearly did it a few years back against us. It was good striking.”