Exactly a decade ago, Dmitri Mascarenhas proved to be a nightmare for Yuvraj Singh as he hit five consecutive sixes off him during the last over of the innings. The incident happened during the sixth ODI of India’s tour of England. England were leading the seven-matches series 3-2 before this ODI.
Paul Collingwood, the then English captain, won the toss and chose to bat. England lost its openers in the fourth over as they were reduced to 20-2 by the Indian pacers. Kevin Pietersen scored a watchful half-century to bring back England into the game. Batting at No. 6, Owais Shah scored his maiden and the only ODI century, 107* (95), with the help of 11 fours & two sixes. He was well supported by Luke Wright, who also scored a half-century in his debut match.
Mascarenhas came in to bat at 6-243 in the 45th over. Before going bonkers at Yuvraj Singh, he could only manage six runs off 10 balls. However, having seen the ball in Yuvraj’s hand for the last over, he was in no mood of sparing the southpaw. England ended up scoring 316-6 in 50 overs. For India, Zaheer Khan, Piyush Chawla and Ajit Agarkar had picked a wicket apiece. Watch the video of Mascarenhas’ innings:
In reply, India were off to the best possible start during such a chase. Sachin Tendulkar (94) and Sourav Ganguly (53) built a 150-run partnership to lay a solid platform for the other batsmen to follow. Having said that, both the opener were dismissed within three overs. Watch the video of Ganguly answering Stuart Broad with his bat:
India managed to seal the chase with able contributions from Gautam Gambhir (47), MS Dhoni and Robin Uthappa. When Dhoni (35) got out, India required 23 runs in two overs to win the match. Despite wickets falling at one end, Uthappa was clear about his approach and brought an Indian victory with two wickets and two balls remaining. He scored 47* (33) with the help of eight fours.