JP Duminy broke the South African List A record for most runs scored in a single over when he hit Eddie Leie for 37 runs in a Momentum one-day cup match on Wednesday.
It happened when the Cape Cobras were comfortably placed at 208 for 2 in the 36th over of a chase of 240 against the Knights. But Duminy, batting on 34 off 30 balls, sensed the opportunity to steal a bonus point. And it helped that the man he was facing was a legspinner, turning the ball into his hitting arc.
The carnage began with a slog sweep. It continued with a biff straight down the ground. Then came a couple of heaves into the grass banks on the leg side. Four balls. Four sixes. Two more and he would match Herschelle Gibbs' feat in the 2007 World Cup.
Duminy took strike again as excitement built around Newlands. But Leie doused it all by making sure his fifth delivery cost only two runs. There was only one ball left in the over and it seemed like the record wouldn't be broken.
Except Leie coughed up a no-ball, and Duminy hit it for four through extra cover. That took the tally to 31 runs off the over and it was game on again.
Duminy took his stance. Leie ran in. A split second later the ball was soaring away for six. Duminy had not only won the match but secured his place in history as the batsman to hit the second-most runs in an over of List A cricket. In October 2013, Zimbabwe's Elton Chigumbura had played a big hand in ransacking 39 runs against Bangladesh's Alauddin Babu in the Dhaka Premier League.
"It is not every day you get the opportunity, so of course I was trying to go for the six sixes in an over," Duminy said after finishing unbeaten on 70 off just 37 balls. "I initially thought it was all about the bonus point. I looked up at the scoreboard and we needed 35 with four overs still to go to get the bonus point, so I just decided to take Eddie on. I was striking the ball really cleanly, and when the first two went for six, I figured I might as well give it a full go now because regardless whether I get out we would still have secured the bonus point. It was enjoyable."