Quote:The crowd erupted; the big fast bowler seethed. The batsman, one of no great standing at that, had sweetly driven him back over his head for six. The shot had come out of the blue, and caught the audience, the bowler, and even the batsman himself--it is likely--by surprise.
After the hit a noisy know-it-all, the kind you run into at almost every match, loudly and enthusiastically proclaimed that he knew exactly what would be coming. “If the next ball is not a bouncer,” he swore, “I will personally leave the ground.” No fast bowler, he explained, liked being hit back over his head like that and so the pacer was bound to retaliate with a fast, short, screaming delivery, or at least an attempt at one. But the follow-up delivery was full and our talkative friend fell silent and our ears were spared the incessant chatter for a few overs.
This, I’m guessing, was some time in the early 1990s. I’m not sure if the game was a test match; it might have been a regional first-class game. Though I don’t remember the protagonists, the venue was Sabina Park, Jamaica, and I was seated in what was then the Eastern stands. I recall the incident because of how significant a hit for six seemed back then. Nowadays, with the maximum hit becoming more and more a part of all varieties of the game, sixes are now commonplace, and would likely not have elicited the kind of reaction it did those years ago.