Yuvraj Singh’s Six Sixes: How One Over in Durban Changed T20 Cricket
Yuvraj Singh's six sixes off Stuart Broad in Durban, 19 Sep 2007: ball by ball, the 12-ball fifty that is still India's record, and every six-sixes over.
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On 19 September 2007, at Kingsmead in Durban, Yuvraj Singh hit six sixes in an over off England’s Stuart Broad: six legal balls, 36 runs, a fifty from 12 balls. It was the first time anyone had done it in a T20 international, at the first World Twenty20, five days before India won it. This page follows the over from its causes (a sledge from Andrew Flintoff and five sixes Yuvraj had conceded a fortnight earlier) to its long afterlife: the IPL, the batters who have chased his record, and the 19th anniversary last month, when the 12-ball fifty was still India’s fastest.
💡 Short Answer
Yuvraj Singh hit six sixes in the 19th over of India’s innings against England at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 in Durban on 19 September 2007, off Stuart Broad. He went from 14 off 6 balls to 50 off 12, then the fastest fifty in international cricket, and finished with 58 off 16. India made 218 for 4 and won by 18 runs. He was the first to hit six sixes in a T20 international and the second in any international match, after Herschelle Gibbs. His 12-ball fifty remains India’s fastest in T20Is.
Yuvraj Singh’s Six Sixes: Key Questions
The Six Sixes in Ten Points
- 19 September 2007, Durban: Super Eight match, England v India, first World Twenty20.
- The over: the 19th, bowled by Stuart Broad, 21. Six legal balls, six sixes, 36 runs.
- The fifty: 14 off 6 before the over, 50 off 12 after it. Still India’s fastest T20I fifty.
- The spark: two fours and an argument with Andrew Flintoff in the 18th over.
- The backstory: Dimitri Mascarenhas had hit Yuvraj for five sixes in an over 14 days earlier.
- The result: India 218/4, England 200/6; India won by 18 runs and stayed alive.
- Not the first: Gibbs did it in an ODI in March 2007; Sobers and Shastri in first-class cricket.
- What followed: 70 off 30 in the semi-final, the title on 24 September, the IPL in April 2008.
- The record since: Airee’s nine-ball fifty (2023) broke the international mark; no Indian has beaten 12.
- In 2026: a 19th-anniversary video, an SS collectible bat range, and Yuvraj still hitting sixes in legends cricket.
Step through Broad’s over one ball at a time: where each six went, and what it did to the score.
Directions from match reports; positions are for a left-handed batter and approximate.
Choose a ball above
The Over, Ball by Ball
From 14 off 6 to 50 off 12 in six deliveries.
| Ball | Shot | Yuvraj | India |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | India 171/3 after 18 overs | 14 (6) | 171/3 |
| 1 | Six over deep midwicket | 20 (7) | 177/3 |
| 2 | Six over backward square leg | 26 (8) | 183/3 |
| 3 | Six over wide long-off | 32 (9) | 189/3 |
| 4 | Six over deep point (full toss, round the wicket) | 38 (10) | 195/3 |
| 5 | Six over square leg | 44 (11) | 201/3 |
| 6 | Six over wide long-on | 50 (12) | 207/3 |
Each six took Yuvraj six runs closer to fifty and India six runs past their 18-over total. Broad tried two things: after the third ball he and captain Paul Collingwood talked, and for the fourth he came round the wicket. That ball arrived as a full toss and was slashed over point. The fifth was shorter and was pulled; the sixth was full and went over long-on. The over did not contain a single wide, no-ball, dot ball or single, which is why 36, the maximum from six legal deliveries, was possible.
The speed of the fifty is easy to forget behind the sixes. Before Durban, the fastest international fifty was in ODIs, at 17 balls. Yuvraj cut that by five, and the record lasted 16 years.
The Match: England v India, Durban, 19 September 2007
India needed to win; England were already out.
| Item | England v India, Durban, 19 Sep 2007 |
|---|---|
| Stage | Super Eight, Group E, ICC World Twenty20 |
| Toss | India, chose to bat |
| India | 218/4 (20 overs) |
| Sehwag | 68 (52 balls), 4 fours, 3 sixes |
| Gambhir | 58 (41), 7 fours, 1 six |
| Yuvraj Singh | 58 (16), 3 fours, 7 sixes, SR 362.50 |
| Stuart Broad | 4 overs, 0 for 60 |
| England | 200/6 (20 overs) |
| Solanki / Pietersen / Collingwood | 43 / 39 / 28 |
| Irfan Pathan | 4 overs, 3 for 37 |
| Result | India won by 18 runs |
| Player of the Match | Yuvraj Singh |
| Umpires | Billy Doctrove, Simon Taufel |
The six sixes are usually told as a solo act, but the match had already been set up. India had lost their first Super Eight game to New Zealand by 10 runs, so they had to beat England and then South Africa to reach the semi-finals. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir gave them a fast start, both passing fifty, and by the end of the 18th over India were 171 for 3, with Yuvraj and MS Dhoni together.
That 18th over, bowled by Andrew Flintoff, is where the story turns. Yuvraj hit two fours, words were exchanged, and the umpires had to separate them. In later interviews Yuvraj has said he wanted to hit every ball out of the ground after that. England’s chase, led by Vikram Solanki (43) and Kevin Pietersen (39), got to 200 for 6,. Without the 36 runs from the 19th over, India would have lost.
Yuvraj Singh’s Six Sixes: The Full Timeline, 1968–2026
Newest first. Tags mark milestones, records and setbacks.
Still clearing the ropes at 44 2026
Playing for India Champions against Australia Champions in the World Championship of Legends at Sharjah, Yuvraj scores 71 from 44 balls with five fours and six sixes. India Champions make 196 for 7 and win by 46 runs. It is retired players’ cricket, but the swing is recognisably the one from Durban.
2026
The 19th anniversary: ‘It all started with this’ 2026
On the anniversary Yuvraj posts a video that pairs the Broad over with the five sixes Dimitri Mascarenhas hit off him at The Oval fourteen days before it, captioned ‘It all started with this’. Two days later Meerut bat maker SS (Sareen Sports), his long-time sponsor, announces six limited-edition collectible bats, one for each delivery of the over, plus a regular retail range, with a share of sales going to his YouWeCan Foundation.
2026
Abhishek Sharma’s 30-ball hundred
Abhishek Sharma, the Punjab left-hander Yuvraj has mentored since his teens, reaches a T20I hundred in 30 balls against Afghanistan in Delhi, India’s fastest and the fastest by any batter against a Full Member side. He finishes on 108 from 34. His fifty took 16 balls; Yuvraj’s 12-ball record survives again.
2026
Abhishek’s 14-ball fifty: ‘more than impossible’ Record
Abhishek reaches 50 from 14 balls against New Zealand, the closest any Indian has come to Yuvraj’s 12. A month earlier Hardik Pandya had made a 16-ball fifty against South Africa. Asked about his mentor’s mark, Abhishek says: ‘I mean that’s more than impossible for anyone.’
2024
Airee makes it five in internationals
Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee hits Qatar’s Kamran Khan for six sixes in the final over of Nepal’s innings, becoming the third man to do it in a T20I after Yuvraj and Kieron Pollard, and the fifth in international cricket.
2023
Yuvraj’s fastest-fifty record falls after 16 years Record
Airee reaches 50 from nine balls against Mongolia at the Asian Games, breaking the record for the fastest fifty in international cricket that Yuvraj had held since Durban. Against Full Member opposition, no one has yet matched 12 balls in a T20I.
Pollard and Malhotra join the club
West Indies captain Kieron Pollard hits Akila Dananjaya for six sixes in Antigua, an over after Dananjaya had taken a hat-trick, becoming the first since Yuvraj to do it in a T20I. In September the Chandigarh-born USA batter Jaskaran Malhotra hits Papua New Guinea’s Gaudi Toka for six sixes in an ODI. Yuvraj publicly welcomes Pollard to the club.
2019
Retirement in Mumbai
Yuvraj announces his retirement from international cricket and the IPL at a press conference in Mumbai, saying it is time to move on. He leaves with two World Cup winner’s medals, the 2011 Player of the Tournament award and, still, the fastest fifty in international cricket.
From IPL record buy to a slow final Setback
The T20 economy the six sixes helped create values Yuvraj at ₹14 crore at the 2014 IPL auction and a then-record ₹16 crore in 2015. In between comes the other side of the format: in the 2014 World T20 final against Sri Lanka in Mirpur he scores 11 from 21 balls, India lose, and he is widely blamed. T20 remembers the slow innings as sharply as the fast ones.
Back for India after cancer Milestone
Less than a year after his diagnosis, Yuvraj returns in a T20 international against New Zealand, then plays the 2012 World Twenty20. The man best known for the most violent over in T20 history becomes better known, for a while, for surviving.
2012
Diagnosis: mediastinal seminoma Setback
Months after the World Cup, Yuvraj is found to have a mediastinal seminoma, a rare germ-cell tumour between the lungs. He has three cycles of chemotherapy in the United States, without surgery, and is discharged in March 2012. He later sets up the YouWeCan Foundation.
2011
World Cup winner, Player of the Tournament Milestone
Yuvraj makes 362 runs and takes 15 wickets with his left-arm spin as India win the World Cup at home, and is named Player of the Tournament. He was unwell throughout, coughing and at times bringing up blood, without knowing why.
The IPL, and Yuvraj as a franchise icon
Seven months after Durban the Indian Premier League begins, turning T20 from an experiment into a city-franchise business. Yuvraj is Kings XI Punjab’s icon player and captain. The format’s first great Indian highlight reel is now its marketing.
2007
India win the first World Twenty20 Milestone
Gautam Gambhir makes 75. Pakistan need 13 from the final over, bowled by the little-known Joginder Sharma; Misbah-ul-Haq hits a six, then scoops the next ball to S Sreesanth at short fine leg. Irfan Pathan (3 for 16) is Player of the Match. Yuvraj scores 14 from 19 balls in the final; his tournament had already been made.
2007
70 off 30 to knock out Australia Milestone
Three days after the six sixes, back at Kingsmead, Yuvraj hammers 70 from 30 balls against the world champions. India post 188 for 5 and win by 15 runs. It is the innings that proves Durban was not a fluke.
2007
Six balls, six sixes, a 12-ball fifty Record
India, beaten by New Zealand three days earlier, need to win. Sehwag (68 from 52) and Gambhir (58 from 41) put on a fast opening stand, and India are 171 for 3 after 18 overs. In the 18th, Yuvraj hits Andrew Flintoff for two fours and the pair exchange words until the umpires step in.
Collingwood gives the 19th to Stuart Broad, 21. Yuvraj, on 14 from 6, hits every ball for six: deep midwicket, backward square leg, wide long-off, deep point (a full toss, after Broad switches round the wicket), square leg, wide long-on. 36 runs. He reaches 50 from 12 balls, then the fastest fifty in any international cricket, and finishes on 58 from 16. India make 218 for 4; England, already out of contention, reach 200 for 6. Yuvraj is Player of the Match.
2007
Beaten by New Zealand Setback
India open the Super Eights with a 10-run defeat. With England, South Africa and New Zealand in the group, they now need to beat both England and the hosts.
2007
A tie and a bowl-out against Pakistan
India’s first completed match ends in a tie and is settled by a bowl-out at the stumps. Sehwag, Harbhajan and Uthappa hit; Pakistan’s three bowlers miss. It is the start of India’s run.
2007
Five sixes off Yuvraj at The Oval
Fourteen days before Durban, England all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas hits Yuvraj’s left-arm spin for five consecutive sixes in the final over of England’s innings. Yuvraj has since said the memory was with him when he faced Broad.
A young squad, a new captain
With India’s three senior batters choosing to sit out the new format, the selectors name MS Dhoni captain of a young squad with Yuvraj as vice-captain. Few expect much: India had played one T20 international before the tournament.
2007
Gibbs: the first in international cricket
Herschelle Gibbs hits leg-spinner Daan van Bunge for six sixes in a World Cup ODI in the West Indies, the first time it has happened in an international match. Six months later Yuvraj becomes the second.
T20 goes international
The first men’s T20 international is played in Auckland in February 2005, partly in fancy dress. India play their first, and only pre-tournament, T20I in Johannesburg in December 2006. The ICC schedules a World Twenty20 for South Africa in September 2007.
2003
England invents professional Twenty20
The England and Wales Cricket Board launches the Twenty20 Cup to bring crowds back to county cricket: 20 overs a side, about three hours, evening starts. It is domestic only; international T20 is two years away.
1985
Sobers and Shastri: six sixes before Yuvraj
Garfield Sobers, for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan, is the first to hit six sixes in an over in senior cricket. Ravi Shastri repeats it for Bombay against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy. Both were first-class matches, not internationals.
The 12-Ball Fifty and the Batters Who Have Chased It
Broken internationally in 2023; never by an Indian.
For 16 years Yuvraj’s 12-ball fifty was the fastest in any international cricket. It fell in September 2023 to Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee, who needed nine balls against Mongolia at the Asian Games, an Associate-level match. Among India’s batters the closest attempts have come in the past year: Hardik Pandya’s 16-ball fifty against South Africa in December 2025, and Yuvraj’s own protege Abhishek Sharma with 14 balls against New Zealand in January 2026 and 16 balls on the way to a 30-ball hundred against Afghanistan in September 2026.
That Abhishek is the man closest to the record is part of the story. Yuvraj has worked with the Punjab left-hander since he was a teenager, and Abhishek’s game, attacking from the first ball, is the T20 batting philosophy Durban advertised. When asked about the 12-ball mark, he called it ‘more than impossible for anyone’.
The Six-Sixes Club
Seven men in first-class and international cricket. Yuvraj was the fourth.
| Batter | Bowler | Match | Date | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield Sobers | Malcolm Nash | Nottinghamshire v Glamorgan, Swansea | 31 Aug 1968 | First-class |
| Ravi Shastri | Tilak Raj | Bombay v Baroda, Bombay | 10 Jan 1985 | First-class |
| Herschelle Gibbs | Daan van Bunge | South Africa v Netherlands, St Kitts | 16 Mar 2007 | ODI |
| Yuvraj Singh | Stuart Broad | India v England, Durban | 19 Sep 2007 | T20I |
| Kieron Pollard | Akila Dananjaya | West Indies v Sri Lanka, Antigua | 3 Mar 2021 | T20I |
| Jaskaran Malhotra | Gaudi Toka | USA v Papua New Guinea, Oman | 9 Sep 2021 | ODI |
| Dipendra Singh Airee | Kamran Khan | Nepal v Qatar, ACC Premier Cup | 13 Apr 2024 | T20I |
Six sixes in an over has also happened in domestic T20 and List A cricket (Ross Whiteley in 2017, Hazratullah Zazai in 2018, Leo Carter in 2020 and Thisara Perera in 2021), but in international cricket it has happened only five times. Yuvraj’s stands apart for its setting: a World Cup match, against a full-strength England attack, in the first edition of the format’s world tournament, in a game his team had to win.
There is a neat link to Shastri. The second man ever to hit six sixes in an over was a regular voice on Indian cricket broadcasts in that era, and has often recalled watching Yuvraj join him in the club.
India’s 2007 Campaign, Match by Match
A squad few expected to win, and Yuvraj’s part in it.
| Date | Match | Result | Yuvraj highlight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Sep | v Scotland, Durban | No result (rain) | – |
| 14 Sep | v Pakistan, Durban | Tie; India won bowl-out | – |
| 16 Sep | v New Zealand, Johannesburg | Lost by 10 runs | – |
| 19 Sep | v England, Durban | Won by 18 runs | 58 (16), six sixes |
| 20 Sep | v South Africa, Durban | Won by 37 runs | – |
| 22 Sep | v Australia, Durban (SF) | Won by 15 runs | 70 (30) |
| 24 Sep | v Pakistan, Johannesburg (F) | Won by 5 runs | 14 (19) |
India arrived with a new captain in MS Dhoni, a squad without Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, and one previous T20 international. They tied with Pakistan and won the bowl-out, lost to New Zealand, then won four knockout-pressure games in a row. In the semi-final, Yuvraj’s 70 from 30 balls beat Australia, the reigning 50-over world champions.
Why the Over Mattered Beyond the Scoreboard
Twenty20 in 2007 was still an experiment for India: one previous international, and the senior players had opted out. The World Twenty20 gave the format a stage; the six sixes gave it a clip. Within days the over was being replayed everywhere, and India’s title five days later turned a new format into a national event.
Seven months later the Indian Premier League began. Yuvraj was Kings XI Punjab’s icon player, and by 2015 franchises were paying a then-record ₹16 crore for him. The idea the over made obvious, that one over can decide a T20 match and that batters should try to win overs rather than survive them, became the format’s operating principle: specialist power hitters, death-over plans, bowlers who live on yorkers and slower balls.
The over also changed the bowler. Stuart Broad was 21 and in his first year of international cricket. He went on to take 604 Test wickets and win the Ashes four times before retiring in 2023. The over became one early chapter of a long career, not its definition.
Corrections to Claims Circulating Online
From the summary material this page was built from, checked against the scorecard and match reports.
“14 runs from 7 balls before the over”
Yuvraj was 14 from 6. Six more balls took him to 50 from 12.
“155/3 after 17 overs, then Yuvraj joined Dhoni”
The verified marker is 171/3 after 18 overs, with Yuvraj and Dhoni batting.
“A remarkable counterattack from Flintoff” in the chase
England’s top scorers were Solanki (43), Pietersen (39) and Collingwood (28). Flintoff’s role was the 18th-over argument.
“What happened to the record?” left vague
Airee’s nine-ball fifty (2023) broke it internationally. The 12 balls are still India’s T20I record.
“Gibbs was the earlier example”
Sobers (1968) and Shastri (1985) came first in senior cricket; Pollard, Malhotra and Airee have followed in internationals.
“2003: T20 begins its international experiment”
2003 was England’s domestic Twenty20 Cup. The first men’s T20 international was in February 2005.
Did You Know?
- Fourteen days: Mascarenhas hit Yuvraj for five sixes on 5 September 2007; Yuvraj hit Broad for six on 19 September.
- No extras: the over had no wides or no-balls, so it is the purest possible 36.
- Same ground, two masterclasses: Yuvraj’s semi-final 70 off 30 was also at Kingsmead, three days later.
- Broad went round the wicket for the fourth ball. It became a full toss and went over point.
- England were already out of the tournament; India were one defeat from elimination.
- The bat maker remembers: SS is releasing six collectible bats, one per ball of the over, from 2026.
Quick Quiz
1. Who bowled the six sixes over?
2. How many balls did Yuvraj take to reach 50?
3. Who first hit six sixes in an international match?
4. By how many runs did India beat England that night?
5. Who hit Yuvraj for five sixes in an over two weeks earlier?
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Nineteen Years On
Nineteen years later, the over is still the reference point. Every fast Indian fifty is measured against 12 balls, and each new member of the six-sixes club is compared to Durban. Yuvraj marked the anniversary with a reminder of where it began: five sixes conceded at The Oval, a fortnight before he hit six.
The over did not create T20 cricket, and India’s title owed as much to Gambhir, Pathan, RP Singh, Joginder Sharma and Dhoni’s captaincy. But it gave a young format its first unforgettable image at the moment a billion-person market was deciding whether to care. Six months later came the IPL. The rest of modern cricket followed.
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⚠️ Editorial Note
Last updated 5 October 2026. Match figures come from the ESPNcricinfo scorecard and contemporary match reports; the ball-by-ball shot directions are from match reports and are approximate. Record lists follow Wisden and ESPN. Quotes are as reported. 2026 items (anniversary, SS bat range, legends match) are from dated news reports.
Sources & further reading
Every dated entry above was checked against these references. Last reviewed 5 October 2026.
- ESPNcricinfo: England v India scorecard, ICC World Twenty20 2007, Durban, 19 Sep 2007
- Wikinews: 2007 ICC World Twenty20, England vs India (match report, Sep 2007)
- ESPNcricinfo: India hold their nerve to win thriller (final report, 24 Sep 2007)
- Wisden: Every player to have hit six sixes in an over in professional cricket
- ESPN: Abhishek Sharma slams India's second-fastest T20I fifty, 14 balls (25 Jan 2026)
- ICC: Yuvraj Singh announces retirement from international cricket, IPL (10 Jun 2019)
- SportzPower: SS celebrates Yuvraj Singh's 6 sixes with special-edition collectible bat range (Sep 2026)
- Wikipedia: 2007 World Twenty20 final