Smashing the Glass ceiling: Meet the Northern Irish cricketer whose six sixes have got the cricket world talking

The Cricketer chats to John Glass, the 21-year-old maths undergraduate who scored six sixes in the final over the Lagan Valley Steels T20 Trophy to seal an unlikely victory for Ballymena Cricket Club

John Glass's life has turned upside down. From County Antrim to the offices of the Times of India, London to Christchurch, New Zealand, everyone is talking about the batsman from Ballymena who scored six sixes in an over to seal a three-wicket win for his club in the final of the Lagan Valley Steels T20 Trophy.

His phone has been ringing non-stop with messages of congratulations from friends, family and strangers, and media interest from around the globe, who can name him alongside the likes of Garry Sobers, Ravi Shastri and Kieron Pollard as a proud member of the six sixes club.

But for the 21-year-old, who is heading into the final year of a maths degree at Queen's University Belfast, the magnitude of what he achieved on July 15 is yet to truly sink in.  

"Every time I think about it, I don’t understand that it can't ever be taken away from me, if that makes sense?" he says, speaking to The Cricketer a few days after his monumental knock. "I haven’t really understood what it means, but when you see how far it's spread and the publicity it's got, it's amazing.

"The Times of India are reporting it, my friend in New Zealand rang me up and was like 'why didn’t you tell me? I saw this on the news!'. There's a guy in Australia who's friends with my brother, he got a text off him as well. I don't know what to say, I’m still processing it all.

^{Ballymena posing with the trophy after the final}

"I remember standing in my kitchen after shifts at my auntie's company as a waiter and I'd have a match the next day and I'd be shadow batting at 1am with the lights off. You think about hitting shots like that or playing in situations like that. It's such a dream and to do it, it’s crazy."

And it's no wonder he is struggling to comprehend what happened during Thursday's final.

Sitting second bottom of the league table and having never won at Cregagh's Gibson Park, Ballymena headed into the final as the underdogs, and immediately found themselves on the backfoot following a strong opening partnership from Jay Hunter and Jonny Moore, the latter posting a 46-ball half-century.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Glass's older brother, Sam, flipped the game on its head, dismissing both openers and Cregagh captain Aaron Johnston, and completing his hat-trick in the process. With renewed confidence, Ballymena restricted Cregagh to 147 for 7 while Glass senior finished with figures of 3 for 5.

However, after his side's top order failed to fire, Glass walked out to the middle with a near-impossible task on his hands and favourites Cregagh nailed on to lift the trophy. The rest, as they say, is history.

"We kept them under 150 which we were very happy about. We were thinking 140 maybe gave us a chance," Glass says. "With the bat, it was disappointing at the start, and we were looking a bit dire. We got to the point where there was no escape, we were down seven and needed about 74 off four overs. I hit a few 12-run overs and then obviously needed 35 runs off the final over.

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"I'm thinking I'm going it give it my best, give Cregagh the trophy and go home. It wasn’t our final ,but we fought well. It was going to go one of two ways – I was going to go down trying or it was going to happen. And luckily it happened!"

Describing those final six balls, he continues: "When I hit the fourth one, I stepped aside and shouted for a bit. Everyone was going mad, and I was thinking, 'now I can actually do this!' Every ball I was just pacing back and forth, looking at the ground, walking and trying to think about nothing. The fifth one, that went smoothly; I didn't feel any nerves for that one. It was the same shot every time – watching the ball, stepping across off-stump, opening myself up and swinging .

"The last ball, when he was running in to bowl, my hands were shaking. I felt like I was keeping the emotions down, but something crept through there for the last ball. I just had to take a breath and think 'hit' and it worked out in the end!"

Glass ended the match unbeaten on 87, unsurprisingly picking up the man of the match gong, and hoisted the trophy as Ballymena's captain for the day – a special moment for his whole family for whom the cricket club is a second home.

His father and uncle both played for the first XI, with the former also coaching many of the club's junior sides; his grandfather has been the groundsman for the past 20 years; his mum served as the cricketing director for a local school. In the final alone, the name Glass appeared three times on the teamsheet, with cousin, Michael, recruited from a side in Lisburn at the start of the season, joining Glass and his brother at the club they have both been members of since they started primary school.

Hard to say for sure, but if one brother taking a hat-trick and the other hitting six sixes in the final over to win has happened before, I'd be very surprised. Very, very surprised. Elvis winning next year's World Snooker Championships level of surprise.

— Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) July 16, 2021

But while everyone is over the moon with Thursday's victory, there is of course the inevitable sibling rivalry between Glass and hat-trick hero, Sam. "The sun was shining on us that day!" Glass admits. "My sister went out for a round of golf and had the best round she's ever had that morning! And then Sam did that, it was his first hat-trick. He didn't know he had it because it went over two overs, and we didn't bring the field in or anything – and then he bowled the guy!

"He's over the moon that we won the cup, but when I came off, he came up to me and was like 'taking my man of the match, why did you do that?' It's a weird situation to overshadow a hat-trick in the final but I’ve got bragging rights for the rest of my life there!"

And as for suggestion that he could awarded the freedom of Ballymena for his final heroics, Glass laughs it off: "So many people have said that to me! Of course not. I'd be up there with people like Liam Neeson. That would be a bit too crazy, wouldn’t it?"

Photos courtesy of Alastair Crease, with thanks