Darius Visser, the 28-year-old from Samoa became the latest entrant to the ‘6 -sixes club’ on Tuesday, August 20as they faced Vanuatu in the T20 World Cup East Asia-Pacific Qualifiers in Apia.
Playing just his 3rd T20I for Samoa, Visser had to come in early after Vanuatu rattled the Samoan top order, reducing them to 4/2 in 1.5 overs. What he did next is etched in the history forever. In the 15th over of the innings, the right-handed batter went hammer and tongs against Vanuatu’s Nalin Nipoko and scored 6 sixes in the over.
Born in Aukland, New Zealand, Darius Visser moved to Australia at a very young age. Playing his formative years of cricket in Sydney’s Penrith Cricket Club, the young boy aspired to become a pacer. However, as fate would have it, he ended up becoming a batter who could roll his arms over to bowl leg spin.
Just four months back, at 28, when he had given up his dream of playing international cricket and was coaching at Sydney University, he decided to give his dream another shot. He decided and showed up for the trials to represent Samoa, thanks to his half-Samoan heritage. He made the cut to play the T20 World Cup’s East-Asia Pacific Qualifiers and made his debut for Samoa on August 17 against Fiji.
Just three days after his debut, he found himself in the middle of a difficult situation while batting first, and not only did he bail his team out of the collapse but also recorded his name in the history books. As he hammered the 6th six in Nipoko’s over, he added his name to an elusive list, becoming just the 6th player joining the likes of Herschelle Gibbs (2007), Yuvraj Singh (2007), Kieron Pollard (2021), Jaskaran Malhotra (2021), Dipendra Singh Airee (2024) to score six sixes in an international game.
Apart from the aforementioned record, he also became the batter to score the highest percentage of the team’s total score in a T20I innings with 75.84% (132 off 174) surpassing Aaron Finch’s 75.10 % (172 off 174).
He also finished his quota of 4 overs with the ball and got 1/29 and helped Samoa win the game against by a margin of 10 runs where the. Following up on this highly significant day for Samoan cricket, Visser yet again managed to top score on August 21 with 72(39) and took 3 wickets for 31 runs against Fiji, taking them to the top of the points table in their journey towards the 2026 T20 World Cup.
From giving up on the desire to play international cricket to turning the tide in his favor and scripting history within months, it has been a roller-coaster for the latest star from Samoa. Not many could brag about sharing their name in a list where the greats like Gibbs, Yuvraj, and Pollard feature.
Not all inspiring stories have to come from the world beaters and ICC trophy winners, some could also come from an unlikely part of the world where cricket was banned when the first World Cup was being played, which is a story for another day.
As Samoan cricket finds itself on an upward trajectory, they have, notably, also qualified for the U19 Women’s T20 World Cup to be played in Malaysia, early in 2025. They have been named in the same group as New Zealand and South Africa alongside another African country which is yet to be qualified.
