Herschelle Gibbs clobbered his way to a first in international cricket, swatting six sixes in one over on Friday in South Africa's 221-run World Cup win over the Netherlands.
He earned US$1 million for charity, and magnified the gulf between the Test and the Associate teams that will likely keep growing wider on the small grounds in the Caribbean.
"It's up there with the best things I've done," Gibbs said. "I never thought about getting six in a row -- but if it's your day, it's your day."
PHOTO: AFP
South Africa's winning margin was the third-largest in World Cup history. The record of 256 has narrowly survived on three consecutive days: defending champions Australia beat Scotland by 203 runs on Wednesday -- also at Warner Park in St. Kitts -- to claim the second-highest margin, less than 24 hours before Sri Lanka trounced Bermuda by 243 runs in Trinidad.
In a more pivotal match at St. Lucia, allrounder Scott Styris guided New Zealand to a six-wicket win over England in a result that should determine No. 1 and No. 2 in Group C.
England beat Australia and New Zealand in a limited-overs tri-series in January and came to the Caribbean confident of at least making it beyond the first round for the first time since 1996.
PHOTO: AFP
"It's not a great start and we have to make sure we win the next two games to get into the Super 8s but it's certainly not the end of our tournament by a long way," England captain Michael Vaughan said.
The English were coasting with Kevin Pietersen (60) and Paul Collingwood (31) at the crease, until Styris dismissed Collingwood, triggering a collapse of three wickets in seven balls.
Despite Paul Nixon's cameo 42 at the end, England's 209-7 never looked like enough.
Jimmy Anderson, playing with a splint on his broken finger, did his best to give England a chance by taking two wickets as New Zealand crashed to 3-2 and 19-3 in reply.
But Styris posted an unbeaten 87, sharing a 54-run stand with Craig McMillan (27) which steadied the innings and an unbroken 138 with Jacob Oram (63) to lift New Zealand to 210-4.
"A nervy win," New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said. "Brilliant to get the two points in the bank. The first game could have a massive bearing on certainly the next stage. To win it and get across the line was a great relief."
There was no relief in sight for Daan van Bunge, the 25-year-old Dutch legspinner who will enter cricket lore for being the first bowler ever to concede six sixes in one over of international cricket.
"After the fourth one, I thought it could be on," Gibbs said. "The idea was to have another two goes at it [the record], and luckily I didn't miscue any of them, so it was quite nice. I was lucky the straight boundaries were quite small."
Van Bunge grimmaced, Gibbs smiled and half waved his bat at the crowd before ambling down the pitch to high-five his batting partner.
Tournament sponsor Johnnie Walker confirmed it would donate US$1 million to Habitat for Humanity housing projects to commemorate Gibbs' feat -- only two days after launching the `Six Sixes' challenge.
It had happened only two times before, both in first-class matches. West Indies great Sir Garfield Sobers did it in 1968 at Swansea, and Indian allrounder Ravi Shastri in an Indian domestic match.
Gibbs did not dominate South Africa's scoring, however, out for 72 in the over after his 6-6-6-6-6-6 sequence.
Jacques Kallis scored 128 not out from 109 balls and added 134 off 9.1 overs with Mark Boucher (75 off 31 balls), who took just 21 balls to record the fastest World Cup 50.
South Africa scored 353-3 off 40 overs, the match shortened by 10 overs to each side because of a delayed start due to heavy overnight rain.
The Netherlands were held to 132 for nine in reply.
Until then, van Bunge had a decent World Cup track-record. In 2003, he took 3-16 against England -- dismissing Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff and Nick Knight -- and struck 62 against eventual finalist India.
Van Bunge's reaction to becoming the first bowler to be hit for the maximum was one of shock, according to his captain.
"He started laughing as he was sitting in the dressing room -- he had some flashbacks," Luuk Van Troost said.
Asked if he'd offered any words of wisdon, Van Troost said he had tried.
"I told him after the third ball: `try to bowl a quicker one.' He said: `I just did!"' Van Troost said. "There were a few good balls in it, and a few [bad] balls."
"It's terrible to be a captain in that situation, last couple of overs, I didn't know where to put my players any more, where to bowl," he said.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
RSS