Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
IPL 2021: Kieron Pollard finds fresh angles with bat, scripts Mumbai Indians’ winning story
IPL 2021: With the ball, the Trinidadian applied the brakes on the CSK innings with two wickets in one over before upping the ante with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 87 off 34 balls that fashioned an unlikely last-ball win chasing 219 against the table-toppers.
“So yeah, let’s start with the ball. Brilliant, eh?” Kieron Pollard said at the post-match presentation. When Pollard can “start” with one skill-set and finish with another, Mumbai Indians (MI) become a far more intimidating outfit in the Indian Premier League, like in Saturday’s thrilling victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
With the ball, the Trinidadian applied the brakes on the CSK innings with two wickets in one over before upping the ante with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 87 off 34 balls that fashioned an unlikely last-ball win chasing 219 against the table-toppers.
RR vs SRH Live Score and Updates
While the impact of Pollard the batsman can seldom be doubted, the bowler in him showing up to play a role on the flat Ferozeshah Kotla wicket should please the MI think-tank. More so as the other seaming all-rounder in their armoury, Hardik Pandya, is yet to start bowling this season as he manages his back.
In the 2020 edition in the UAE, where MI defended their IPL title, Pollard notched up 268 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of over 190, playing five innings of 25-plus. He also bowled 21 overs and took four wickets as Rohit Sharma’s sixth bowling option as he eked out a few quiet overs. Of the six matches in which the medium-pacer bowled at least two overs, MI won four and lost two, including one in the Super Over (to Kings XI Punjab, now Punjab Kings).
In MI’s six matches this season before facing CSK, Pollard bowled two overs once and did not bowl at all twice as the champions struggled to get going. In his only other two-over match before Saturday, MI beat Sunrisers Hyderabad, defending 150 on a sluggish Chennai pitch. Pollard slipped in 12 balls in the middle period conceding just 10 runs in that game, after he had struck a 22-ball 35* to propel MI to 150.
Against CSK, Sharma first needed Pollard’s services with the ball. Brought on in the 12th over after Jasprit Bumrah had dismissed the set Moeen Ali but with CSK going strong at 112/2, Pollard removed the other half-centurion, Faf du Plessis and scalped Suresh Raina the next ball. On a placid surface, Pollard was quick to deploy his off-cutters that didn’t offer enough pace for du Plessis to execute his ramp shot or Raina to clear the deep midwicket fielder going for a heave.
A high-flying CSK innings was slowed down with clever use of the slower ball by Pollard, who returned figures of 2-0-12-2 to ease Sharma’s problems as James Neesham, his fifth bowler, gave away 26 runs in two overs.
“We knew it was a small ground with not much turn on the wicket. They had just lost Moeen, so I knew it was the best time for a seamer to come in and get in that one over. We got two wickets and I got another over, which was fantastic,” Pollard said after the game.
What was even more fantastic was the batting that followed; a half-century off 17 balls that saw MI chase 138 in the last 10 overs. The single-handed match-winning knock got the MI captain as well as CSK coach Stephen Fleming to call it one of the best from Pollard in IPL.
Losing three of their first five matches in Chennai, Sharma felt something was missing in his batting line-up with the middle-order muted. Pollard provided the answer, putting his hand up as the power-hitter, backing up the top order in laying a solid base.
“It was about time we as batsmen stood up and showed character,” Pollard told reporters. “You just want to continue performing for the team and for your pride as well. For me, it's about working day in and day out and trying to evolve as a cricketer.”
Part of that evolution as a batsman has been—by Pollard’s own admission—his off-side play. Teams have bowled wide of the stumps to keep the ball away from the big man’s striking zone with some degree of success. On Saturday, the first of Pollard’s eight sixes sailed over long-off off Ravindra Jadeja. An over later, after a flurry of maximums through his favoured on-side, he struck Shardul Thakur for two fours through the other side though one was an edge past short third man, exploiting the field position that did not anticipate a wide ball.
“Teams were starting to bowl wide and you're missing out on balls. You have to try to maximize that part of the field as well. A lot of practice goes into it, which a lot of people don't see. So that has improved and helped me tremendously. I can't say I'm 360 (degrees), but I'm maximizing more angles on the field,” Pollard said.
MI sure appear a different outfit when maximizing Pollard’s all-round abilities.
