Watch: Surrey opener Will Jacks came agonisingly close to hitting six sixes in one over on his way to a blistering 45-ball 96, which was later overshadowed by Middlesex’s extraordinary chase of 253, during their 2023 T20 Blast fixture at the Kia Oval.

Jacks and Laurie Evans put on an extraordinary 177-run opening stand in just 75 balls, but Middlesex managed to pull things back, picking up six wickets thereafter. Surrey still managed to reach 252: breaching the 250-run landmark for the second time this month.

Jacks led the charge: at the end of the 11th over, he was 87 off 37, having just plundered 31 runs off one Luke Hollman over. It included five sixes in a row, but Jacks couldn’t connect with the sixth, leaving him just short of being in one of cricket’s most exclusive groups.

The over began with Jacks carting the leg-spinner over the deep mid-wicket fence: the next one was clubbed over long-off, and the one after that over cow corner. Hollman, though, continued to bowl short: Jacks creamed the fourth ball over extra cover to make it four in a row. The fifth one was looped into him, and Jacks went down on one knee, swatting it over long-on to make it five out of five.

Jacks couldn’t have got an easier sixth ball: Hollman, buckling under the pressure, delivered a waist-high full-toss, ready for Jacks to send it over the ropes. However, the batter couldn’t connect well, exclaiming in disappointment as soon as he hit the shot. The ball trickled to deep mid-wicket, allowing Jacks just one run, and ending the pain for Hollman.

Ross Whiteley remains the only player to hit six sixes in the T20 Blast, a feat he achieved for Worcestershire against Yorkshire in 2017.

Jacks’ knock mattered little in the context of the game though, as Middlesex blitzed the chase, the highest ever in the tournament’s history (and the second-highest in all T20s). Middlesex’s top four all crossed 35, all at a strike rate of at least 185, as Middlesex hunted down the score with four balls and seven wickets to spare. The extraordinary finish also ended a long-standing drought: it was their first win in the format in 15 matches.

Watch Will Jacks’ sixes here:

 

6⃣6⃣6⃣6⃣6⃣…1⃣

Will Jacks comes ever so close to hitting six sixes in an over for Surrey.#CountyCricket2023pic.twitter.com/3NMinfSpbl

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 22, 2023