Team India has seen several big achievements in the history of cricket from World Cup triumph in 1983 to Champions Trophy 2013. However, the victory of World T20 in 2007 must be the closest one for this generation as we all have a big place of that memory in our hearts.
Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh was the hero of Team India in that world cup winning campaign as he lit up the tournament with his swashbuckling batting against England in a league match, where he hit six sixes in an over. In Kingsmead, Durban Yuvi did an unthinkable and sent Stuart Broad over the boundary for six times in an over.
During that tournament, then IPL chairman Lalit Modi was in South Africa with the team who opted a special promise for the Indian players after Team’s victory over Pakistan in the famous ‘ball-out’ match. Rajdeep Sardesai in his new book ‘Democracy XI’ revealed the promise and wrote; “Anyone who hits six sixes in an over will be given a gift of their choice,” said Modi.
Players demanded a Rolex watch but Modi was serious and he shocked them by saying “I will give away a brand-new Porsche if any player achieves the feat.”
Yuvi was in some mood in the very next match and he unleashed himself against the English lads and scored a record 12-ball fifty including six sixes in an over. Afterwards, Lalit Modi stuck to his words and gift Yuvraj a Porsche.
Modi’s quotation in the book reads, “I call it an answer to a prayer to God. Let someone do something that no one has done. And we got six sixes in an over! It simply lit up the screens in every home. Money can’t buy that kind of thing, it just made Twenty20 cricket a must-watch.”