Yuvraj Singh emphatically exorcised the demons of The Oval, when he went for five sixes in the last over of the innings, on a blustery evening at Kingsmead on Wednesday night.

The Punjab left-hander became only the fourth batsman in senior cricket to hit six sixes in an over, and the second after Herschelle Gibbs to do it in an international, when he lay into a hapless Stuart Broad with gusto in a Group E Super Eight fixture of the Twenty20 World Cup.

Arriving behind skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni after Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag had got the Indians off to an excellent start, Yuvraj provided no indication of the carnage to follow as he was greeted by a lifter from Chris Tremlett.

A little later, however, it was the Englishmen that were ducking for cover as, without warning, Yuvraj went into overdrive, exactly two weeks to the day since Dimitri Mascarenhas' assault on his part-time left-arm spin. It was almost as if Yuvraj was affronted by Dhoni's decision to promote himself ahead of the left-hander for the second straight game, and therefore Yuvraj had a point to prove.  The first delivery of Broad's final over was deposited over wide long-on, the second was amazingly whip-flicked over long-leg in an amazing exhibition of hand-eye co-ordination and perfect timing. By then, the English players were making a beeline towards Broad, trying to calm him down and help him regain focus.

Yuvraj, though, wasn't about to lose focus. Ball number three was crashed over long-off, number four was slapped over square point. By now, the adrenaline was flowing, the crowd threatening to bring the stadium down, and Broad a nervous bundle of wreck.

By now, Broad seemed convinced that he was about to go into the history books with a dubious distinction to his name . Number five was, sure enough, smashed over mid-wicket. Broad cut a forlorn figure, hands on his knees, eyes telling a tale as skipper Paul Collingwood asked him to change the angle of attack.

Broad came back to over the stumps, but Yuvraj remained unaffected. As Broad ran hopefully up to the stumps for a final time and let go, Yuvraj opened his broad shoulders and drove him crisply over long-on. It completed a sequence that read 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 and took him to the fastest fifty in Twenty20 history, off just 12 deliveries, apart from providing the first instance of six sixes in an over in Twenty20 internationals.

The bat pointing to the dug-out and the clenched left fist pumping skywards was all the celebration Yuvraj allowed himself. A screamer over long-off off Andrew Flintoff was the icing on the cake before he holed out to long-on. It concluded a breathtaking 20 minutes of entertainment. For the record, Gibbs apart, the others to hit six sixes in an over are Sir Gary Sobers and Ravi Shastri. Gibbs' unfortunate victim was Dutchman Daan van Bunge in this year's World Cup, Sobers latched on to Malcolm Nash in a County Championship game and Shastri punished Tilak Raj in a Ranji Trophy tie.

Super sixes
nHerschelle Gibbs hit Daan van Bunge (Holland) during the World Cup tie in St Kitts on March 16, 2007.
nYuvraj Singh hit Stuard Broad during the Twenty20 World Cup match in Durban on September 19, 2007