Cricket: Six of the best hits

Martin Guptill in action during his record-breaking double century in their victory over the West Indies in the Cricket World Cup 2015. Photograph by Mark Mitchell

Only one batsman has managed to hit the ball on to the roof at the Cake Tin twice - New Zealand's Martin Guptill. It is a feat he will be hoping to achieve again tonight in the final T20 against Pakistan.

In a tribute to tonight's match at Wellington's Stadium, where the roof is an enticing prospect, Andrew Alderson picks six of the game's monster whacks.

1. Albert Trott
Middlesex v Australia, 1899, Lord's
Bowler: Monty Noble
Trott, wielding a three-pound club, remains the only player to clear the Lord's pavilion, an unrivalled feat.
Reports claim it landed on the far slope of the roof, struck a chimney pot and landed in the dressing-room attendant's garden. The man known as "Albatrott" is alleged to have stepped back, shaded his eyes and admired his missile launch. He described it as looking like "a pea in the air".
Extraordinarily, and this could be apocryphal, Trott only got four; the ball had to go out of the ground to get six.

2. Lance Cairns
New Zealand v Australia, 1983, MCG
Bowler: Dennis Lillee
This was Cairns' fifth of six sixes after coming to the wicket at 44 for six in a hopeless chase for 303.
Lillee, the most feared pace bowler in the world, angled the ball into Cairns' legs. Cairns gave his shoulderless Excalibur a half backlift and flailed one-handed into the line. The ball disappeared over long leg, an estimated distance of 120m, prompting Channel Nine commentator Ian Chappell to exclaim "this is unbelievable".

3. Mark Waugh
Australia v New Zealand, 1997, The Waca
Bowler: Daniel Vettori
Vettori came in nonchalantly, minding his own business. Waugh advanced nonchalantly, making the delivery his business. He stroked it, as Waugh tended to do, on to the roof, ruffling a seagull's routine as it landed.
The shot generated excitement from the late Tony Greig in the commentary box. "Right off the meat of the bat," he exclaimed. There was a pause in proceedings while a new ball was fetched, enabling the screen marker pen to graffiti a trajectory.

4. Garry Sobers
Nottinghamshire v Glamorgan, 1968, St Helen's
For Malcolm Andrew Nash, a man who earned the nickname "Super" because of his initials, Sobers was his Kryptonite.
The left-arm orthodox spinner became the first bowler to be hit for six sixes in an over. The last disappeared out of the ground, prompting controversy when the ball was sold for £26,400 at a 2006 Christie's auction.
Nash claimed the ball was a Stuart Surridge brand; Christie's claimed it was a Duke. BBC television footage shows it being returned to Nash after every six except the last. Regardless, Sobers gave it a mighty heave, hooking as the commentator described it, "all the way to Swansea".

5. Viv Richards
Somerset v Glamorgan, circa early 1980s, Taunton
Bowler: Greg Thomas
This effort was stirred by Thomas' advice that the ball was "red, round and weighs about five ounces", after beating Richards outside off stump a couple of times.
"You know what it looks like. Now go and fetch it," retorted the cloth-capped batsman as the next delivery sailed into Somerset's River Tone.

6. Martin Guptill
New Zealand v West Indies, 2015, Wellington
Bowler: Andre Russell
In the most extraordinary ODI onslaught performed in this country, Guptill made 237 not out, batting through the World Cup quarter-final.
On 217, from the first ball of the final over, Russell served Guptill a full toss which, to coin a euphemism, went "over mid-wicket". From there it literally hit the roof, making Guptill the first batsman to produce such a feat twice at The Cake Tin.