Who is the only batsman to hit six fours in a single over in Test cricket?
(26 August 2002)

The drawn second Test at Manchester in India's 1982 tour of England will be remembered primarily for two scintillating batting efforts - centuries in which runs flowed off the bat with supreme felicity, scored by batsmen in prime form.

When England batted first, it was first Ian Botham's turn to occupy centre-stage. The hosts were perched at one time on a precarious 161 for five, but Botham - accompanied by a stable Geoffrey Miller at the other end - took England out of the woods, celebrating his 50th Test by hitting his 10th hundred. Botham raced to 128 off 169 balls, his first 50 runs coming off only 46 deliveries. Nineteen fours and two sixes thundered off his blade, and it was this innings that helped England to a giant 425.

India started badly, losing two wickets for eight runs and five for 136. But Sandeep Patil was perhaps inspired by Botham's performance, for he himself turned in the performance of a lifetime. Refusing to be bogged down by the situation, Patil stroked his way to a sizzling unbeaten 129 off 196 deliveries with the aid of 18 fours and two sixes.

Six of those fours, remarkably, came off a single Bob Willis over. With the third delivery being called a no-ball, the sequence read thus: 4, 4, 4, 0, 4, 4, 4. The sequence was part of Patil's racing from 73 to 104 off an amazing nine balls, streaking not only through the nervous 90s but also through the not-so-nervous 80s and the fairly settled 70s.

Patil's knock - along with Kapil Dev's whirlwind 65 off 55 balls - helped India draw the Test comfortably and earned the Bombay player a much-deserved Man of the Match award as well. Botham and Dilip Doshi - who took six wickets in the first innings - may have felt a tad aggrieved, but if a world record does not deserve Man of the Match awards, what does?

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