The fifth nearly ended the assault. Roger Davis caught the ball at long-off but, still moving backwards, carried it over the boundary. Sobers then dispatched the sixth ball cleanly over the East Terrace to complete an unprecedented over.

The six blows took Sobers from 40 to 76. He finished unbeaten on that score as Nottinghamshire declared at 394 for five, before going on to win the match by 166 runs.

It was the first time a batsman had struck six sixes in an over in first-class cricket. More than 16 years passed before Ravi Shastri repeated the feat for Bombay against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy in January 1985.

The over remains one of cricket’s most enduring pieces of footage and a vivid demonstration of what made Sobers extraordinary. Long before power-hitting became a distinct part of the game, the great Barbadian combined timing, confidence and natural strength in a passage of play that changed cricket’s record books in six deliveries.