Ross Whiteley, the left-handed Worcestershire batsman, hit six sixes in an over on Sunday (July 23) to join a select group of cricketers to have performed the feat in senior cricket.

Whiteley struck Karl Carver, the Yorkshire left-arm spinner, for six sixes in the 16th over of Worcestershire’s innings in a NatWest Twenty20 Blast game played at Headingley. But he fell for 65, scored off 26 balls, as Worcestershire finished on 196 for 7 in a 37-run defeat. David Willey, the Yorkshire allrounder, earlier made 118, which included 34 runs in one over off John Hastings, the Australian paceman.

Garry Sobers was the first to hit six sixes in an over in first-class cricket when, playing for Nottinghamshire, he took apart Malcolm Nash of Glamorgan in a County Championship match in Swansea in 1968.

Since then, Ravi Shastri, Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh have all done the same in either first-class, One-Day International or T20 cricket. And in 2013, Jordan Clark of Lancashire hit six sixes in an over during a second XI match against Yorkshire in Scarborough.

‘It was the right time in the game for me to go for it,’ said Whiteley afterwards. ‘It was all or nothing. Unfortunately for the bowler it was a short boundary on the leg side. I had the mentality that I was going to go for it before I got in. I hit the first out of the screws and needed to keep going for the team, not for that achievement.

‘It’s something I never really thought I’d do in professional cricket,’ added the 28-year-old. ‘Personal milestones are great, but it’s hard to get away from the defeat. It’s pretty tough to take. We’ve lost four out of five and are right down at the bottom.’

Andrew Gale, the Yorkshire coach, said Tim Bresnan, the team captain, had bowled Carver at the wrong stage of the innings.

‘I blame poor captaincy for that,’ said Gale. ‘He shouldn’t have bowled him at that part of the game. I felt for Karl, he’s got a good record in T20 cricket and he’ll bounce back.’