Durban, Sept 19: It was Yuvraj Singh's on-field war of words with Andrew Flintoff that spurred the left-hander to unleash his fury and hit Stuart Broad for six consecutive sixes en route to the fastest half century in the Twenty20 World Cup, said India's cricket manager Lalchand Rajput.
Yuvraj had hit Flintoff for back-to-back fours after which the duo were seen exchanging words. Soon after the incident, Yuvraj hit Broad for six sixes in a row and also hit Flintoff for a maximum before falling in the penultimate delivery of the innings to the all-rounder.
"We wanted to keep him to fire in the last four overs but I think the exchange of words, that verbal thing with Flintoff, charged him up," Rajput said.
"I really don't know what transpired between them but once he had hit the fourth six, Yuvraj looked at (Dimitri) Mascarenhas and was probably thinking 'this guy has hit me for five sixes, I'll hit six today'."
Yuvraj hammered 58 off just 16 balls and his knock was studded with three boundaries and seven sixes.
He also became the first person to hit six sixes in an over in Twenty20 and the second, after Herschelle Gibbs, in ODIs. Yuvraj's teammate Virender Sehwag, also a renowned hard-hitter, also heaped praise on the left-hander.
"Yuvraj was awesome today and hit the fastest half century. He has lot of power and I think he hit couple of those sixes out of the ground," Sehwag said.
Bureau Report
