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Cricket is considered a game dominated by batters, especially in limited-overs cricket. Short boundaries and a penalty of ‘free-hits’ on no balls make the life of bowlers a complete hell. There have been several occasions when the batters have gone completely berserk and ripped apart a bowler and destroyed their bowling figures.
On March 16, 2007, during the ODI World Cup, Herschelle Gibbs made every bowler’s nightmare come true as he smacked six sixes on all six deliveries in an over against the Netherlands. The bowler at the receiving end was Daan van Bunge who had the ignominy of becoming the first bowler to have the unwanted record against his name.
It was a rain-curtailed game of 40 overs and South Africa were 178/2 after 29 overs. With 11 overs left in the game, South Africa had to get a move on in their innings and Gibbs took the onus upon himself. He took on van Bunge and created history at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts.
He used his feet on the first ball and smacked him over long-on to get his first maximum. He once again used his feet against the spinner and hit him straight down the ground to score consecutive sixes. Bunge tried a quicker delivery on the third ball but Gibbs managed to get the same result again.
He went even quicker on the next one but ended up bowling a full toss which was dispatched over deep mid-wicket for another gigantic six. Bunge continued to speed up as he clocked 115 on the speed-o-meter but Gibbs continued the onslaught clobbering him straight down the ground once again. Bunge tried his best to stop Gibbs on the last ball by bowling a straight-arm delivery but the South African was in no mood to stop and etched his name in the history books.
Bunge finished with figures of 0/56 in four overs while Gibbs finished went from 32* (30) to 68* (36) by the end of the over. He got dismissed in the next over after scoring 72 off 40 balls which helped South Africa post 353/3 in 40 overs. In reply, the Netherlands could only manage to score 132/9 in 40 overs and lost the game by 221 runs. Gibbs was awarded Player of the Match for his stupendous knock.
