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Yuvraj Singh, the left-handed batsman and all-rounder from India, was batting along with Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the inaugural match of the T20 World Cup in 2007. Andrew Flintoff from England exchanged some words with Yuvraj during the 18th over, during which Yuvi faced a great delivery by Freddie.
However, due to the heated moment between the pacer Andrew Flintoff and the southpaw of India, Yuvraj Singh got furious.
What did Yuvraj Singh think at that moment?
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Yuvraj Singh got furious after the exchange of words with Freddie(Andrew Flintoff) and said, “Sorry, what did you say?” Later, the umpire came in between and calmed the situation down. In the 19th over, Yuvraj confessed that he wanted to hit every ball out of the park as he was fired up at that moment.
Stuart Broad came to bowl the 19th over, Yuvraj also had hefty baggage of being hit 5 sixes in his over at the Ovals in the ODI World Cup 2007 by Dimitri Mascarenhas. He just wanted to hit 5 sixes in that over, after the first six Yuvraj did not see where the ball went and how long he hit it. The southpaw just had a zeal to hit wherever the bowler bowled.
Yuvraj Singh anticipated a length ball on the offside, and again, he went for a big hit. After hitting five sixes, he said, ‘The sixth six was just a bonus.’ Ms Dhoni, on the other hand, had the greatest view of his batting partner creating folklore for the cricket World Cup.
After the match, Yuvraj also said ‘The great thing about Freddie is he talked about it after the game and that’s why I have a lot of respect for him.’ Before the over Yuvraj Singh also narrated-
“ I was like Dimitri was standing at the deep midwicket and Flintoff was at deep square leg. I know where he was standing. Here what happened was Broad actually switched to over the stumps at the last moment. When he did that, in my mind I was like I knew where he was going to bowl. I was ready that it was going to be a full yorker towards my leg, I just wanted to get my bat on it.
His innings were written in the records of the history of the World Cup, for scoring the fastest half-century in a mere 16 balls and scoring a total of 58 runs at the end of his innings.
His innings got over by getting caught on the long-on off a very penultimate delivery of the final over. This record of the fastest fifty remained unbroken for 14 years until Nepal’s batsman Dipender Singh Airee scored a half-century in just 9 balls against Mongolia in the Asian Games.
Yuvraj’s innings was proved decisive for India as India secured a 20-run victory against England and later in the T20 World Cup India won the finals against their archrivals Pakistan.
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