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Gibbs' Hexad

The Group A match at Bassettere had the Proteas and Dutch facing each other at their respective first outing in 2007 world cup.The match was delayed due to rain. As a causal sequence,each of the innings was retrenched to 40 overs.Netherlands won the toss and invited SA to bat. Devilliers was dismissed in the first over,but Greame Smith and Kallis put on a good show with the bat, tailoring a 114 run stand at a very good scoring rate.In an attempt to deposit the ball over midwicket fence,Greame Smith abdicated his wicket.


Herschelle Gibbs with the year of the world cup (07) etched in his jersey marched in as the next batter . Straightaway he got into the action with a attacking cover drive .But the real drama transpired in the 30th over of the match. Leg Spinner Van Bunge rolled his sleeves to bowl the over. The first one was an over pitched flighted delivery and Gibbs' instant reaction was to bludgeon it over the long-on fielder.Infact the ball had landed on the roof. Immediately the bowler felt the pressure which made him to cause further  mistakes . Gibbs deployed the bowlers weakness , chose his boundary options wisely and started depositing each of the next 5 balls over the fence. The gamut was between long off and midwicket.To be honest it was a brutal striking and bowler couldn't get a chance to rectify his inaccuracy .Such was the audacity of the shots that Gibbs exhibited in that over.He became the first cricketer ever in 50 over World cup history to score 6 sixes in an over.In this process,he also got to his half century in just 33 deliveries. He continued to torment the Dutch bowlers and in an attempt to deposit one over long-on fence,he sacrificed his wicket at 72. He was well supported by Jacques Kallis who had played an anchoring role and Mark Boucher who supplanted Gibbs also scored at a brisk rate and made sure that Proteas didn't lose their track when it came to brutal hiting.Boucher scored 71 of just 35 balls which helped Proteas to score 335 in just 40 overs.It was a huge run chase for Holland.Adding to the misery, Pollock bowled tighter lengths and made sure that he gave nothing away in his opening spell.At the end,it was too much for Netherlands and they conceded a massive 221 run victory to Proteas.Gibbs was adjudged the Man of the match for his ferocious hiting.As a matter of fact, it was a good start for Gibbs as he had a wonderful tournament with the bat which helped Proteas to reach the semis. 


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