0, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6: One over that nearly buried India

Why did Dravid get Yuvraj to bowl the last over? Agarkar may have an answer

It was one over that nearly knocked India out of this seven-match series. And despite the dream win, one question lingered: why did skipper Rahul Dravid pull out the part-time left-arm spin of Yuvraj Singh in the last over?

Maybe, it was Ajit Agarkar’s wayward legside line. Maybe, it was just a wild gamble. Anyway, the result was out there for all to see. Yuvraj Singh bowling to the hard-hitting Dimitri Mascarenhas, England 286 for six in 49 overs. And? 0, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6. Five sixes in 5 balls.

Mascarenhas, the Sri Lankan link in this England team, had just become only the second bowler after South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs (6 sixes) to hit five sixes or more in an ODI over—Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya are next with four each.

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For England today, those 30 runs in the last six balls made it 114 runs in the last 10 overs, taking the match almost beyond India’s grasp.

Back to Mascarenhas, and those five incredible sixes. Mascarenhas was lucky that Piyush Chawla failed to stop in time after catching the ball at long on and touched the rope on the second ball for his first six. The next was forced from outside off but then, Yuvraj gave the next three balls right into the slot where any batsman would look to swing away — straight into his legs.

Finally, it was all about playing just four bowlers – a plan always fraught with danger if one of them goes astray. Today, Zaheer Khan, offie Ramesh Powar and leggie Piyush Chawla were good, but Agarkar was simply not there. And while trying to patch up that hole with part-timers, Dravid took a gamble, and it backfired. Incredibly enough, in hindsight, it just didn’t matter.

MOST RUNS IN AN OVER

36 H Gibbs (Saf) off DLS van Bunge (Ned) at St. Kitts in 2006/07

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32 S Afridi (Pak) off CM Bandara (SL) at Abu Dhabi in 2007

30 S Jayasuriya (SL) off Aamer Sohail (Pak) at Singapore in 1995/96

30 S Jayasuriya (SL) off C Harris (NZ) at Sharjah in 2000/01

30 M Boucher& JH Kallis (Saf) off LP van Troost (Ned) at St. Kitts in 2006/07

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30 D Mascarenhas (Eng) off Yuvraj Singh (India) at The Oval, London in 2007