‘Those were fucking ridiculous shots’, said Flintoff. The poor soul had to let out. He was on the receiving side when Yuvraj Singh found the fence twice in his over. First, he just opened the face of the bat, placed the ball behind square then a delivery later, he pulls. A beautifully placed one which goes high and falls right between the two fielders, and reaches the boundary. ‘Fuck you’, said Yuvraj as a reply. Flintoff hated that. ‘Excuse me?’, asked Flintoff. Shocked. ‘I will cut your throat off’, he added. Yuvraj who was just having fun out there was fuming. He was angry. ‘You see this bat, You know where I will hit you’, replied Yuvraj as Dhoni and the umpires tried to stop him. Flintoff walks back to the boundary line. Lesser did he know that he just woke up the beast. The words had Yuvraj all pumped. He wanted to hit them all out of the park.
When you are playing against Yuvraj, you are not supposed to speak. No, not when he is at this mood. If you do, you, in a moment, will become the closest spectator from the player. He is going to take you on, with no doubts.
Stuart Broad was young but promising. Everyone thought that he was going to have a bright future in the limited-overs. Broad did too.
18.1:
Broad comes over the wicket. He witnessed the fight between Flintoff and Yuvraj. He knows Yuvraj is going to take on him. After all, there wasn’t a lot of deliveries left, and Yuvraj was all pump up. He targets the leg stump. Yuvraj who already knows the plan was ready and had already given himself room. He was waiting. Yuvraj sees the ball. The backlift creates the momentum and the ball travels far away.
Innocent Broad had to face the wrath.
18.2
Broad goes outside off. A bit full. One can tell the mood of Yuvraj with the way he stands and holds the bat. He was waiting. The ball made Yuvraj’s work easier as a flick of the wrist takes the ball away over the backward square-leg. Another six.
We see Flintoff smiling and shaking his head. Yuvraj seems relaxed, but he is not. He looks around and taps the bat as hard as he can. You can feel the anger there. On the other hand, Broad takes his time, looks at the ball for a moment, thinking of the next delivery. He was panicking.
18.3
Broad comes up with almost the same delivery, hoping for a mishit. Yuvraj doesn’t care. He goes over the long-off, thanks to the full swing of the bat. The ball goes a bit flatter than the other two but clears the boundary with ease. Three in three now.
We see the Indian dugout standing and applauding the man. Rightly so.
18.4
Broad gets nervous. He breathes heavily. Comes around the wicket, hoping to stop Yuvraj.
Yuvraj stands a bit outside the leg, giving himself the room to swing his bat freely. Broad tries to bowl outside off, near the wide-line. He misses the yorker length, thus the ball turns into a hip-high full-toss. Will it make a different, asks Ravi Shastri in the commentary box, Yuvraj replies with the bat that it does. A full swing once again. This time he hits over the deep point. The ball somehow crosses the line making it four in a row.
Now you again see the Indian dugout who gleefully applauds. England dugout is not very happy and they should be. The players become restless and walk towards Broad to have their piece of mind. Collingwood advice Broad longer as if that could change the result. We see Dhoni practising shots. Maybe he knew that is all he is going to get because Yuvraj is not going to let him play.
18.5
After a brief discussion, Broad comes over the wicket again. Yuvraj moves to leg-middle stance so that he can swing his bat freely on the leg side. He kneels to hit the ball over the square leg. A bit mishit, but the pace and the power take the ball outside the boundary line. He moves to five now.
You would have heard the word jaw-dropping but this possibly is the first time you see it from Collingwood. That is all he could do. He can watch the ball sail over his fielders. He probably would have been kicking himself for wasting the time in setting up the field. Unfortunately, his fielders cannot fly.
Broad is stunned too. Luke Wright runs in to talk something to Broad, but he looks all lost. What do you expect from the man who is on the verge of creating history, a forgettable milestone?
18.6.
As everyone gets on to the edge of the seat, we see Yuvraj squat too. Was he feeling pressure as well?
He grips the bat tight and was ready to go for it no matter what.
He clears his front leg, swings the bat and the ball hits the middle and goes into the crowd at the wide long-on.
The crowd erupts. There were tears of joy. Even the expression-less Simon Taufel has a smile on his face. Yuvraj fist pumps with Dhoni who had the best seat. I mean, Dhoni always had the best seats when records like these happened. Lucky.
You could hear the claps in the commentary box as well. Ravi Shastri goes… “And he has put that away or has he… Yes… Into the crowd… Six Sixes in an over… Yuvraj Singh finishes things off in style…”
The emotions he brought in was priceless as well. Watch the video in mute, you could still hear his voice. The boldness in his voice keeps reverberating in our ears. Something we do miss now.
Flintoff, though, had his man in the final over but the damage has been done already. It was a lesson well learnt for the man who wears his heart on his sleeves. Of course, he loves to get on the nerves of the batters but unfortunately, it gets the better out of players like Yuvraj Singh.
Yuvraj is the king. Especially, 2007, 2011 was his. He loves the challenges more than anyone else. He loves to put people at their place. He loves to keep reminding people that he is the king. Hey, even cancer fell shot before this man. That was Yuvraj Singh’s world and we were all living that.
யுகத்தின் தலைவன் யுவராஜ் சிங்