NEWS
Follow UsOn August 10 (Saturday), Kieron Pollard created history playing for Southern Brave in the 2024 Hundred competition, smashing leg spinner Rashid Khan for five sixes in a row in the 17th set of the run chase.
The Hundred is a 100 balls per innings competition. Like an ‘over’ in other formats of the sport, this format has a ‘set’ with each bowler bound to bowl five legitimate deliveries per set. Pollard smashed all deliveries of the set for a six, becoming the first batter to do so in the competition running from 2021.
In March 2021, Pollard hit Akila Dananjaya for six sixes in an over in a T20I against Sri Lanka, making him the only batter to smash sixes on all deliveries in an over and a set in T20 and Hundred cricket, respectively.
Pollard scored 45 off 23 balls, including five sixes. There were only three other sixes in the match against Trent Rockets. Rockets were on the top of the game as Brave collapsed to lose six wickets for 35 runs.
The hosts needed 49 from 20 balls when Rashid came on for his last set. Pollard was six off 14 balls and was the only specialist batter left, with the bowling all-rounder Chris Jordan at the other end and Jofra Archer to follow next. While others would have expected Pollard to see Rashid off, he tore into him to bring Brave storm back into the contest.
Kieron Pollard hitting FIVE SIXES IN A ROW! 😱#TheHundred | #RoadToTheEliminator pic.twitter.com/WGIgPFRJAP
— The Hundred (@thehundred) August 10, 2024
Pollard struck two sixes over the cow corner, two over the cover fence and the final one over long-off. He moved from 6 off 14 balls to 36 off 19 balls. Meanwhile, Rashid had conceded only 10 runs off his first 15 balls.
“Played a lot against him (Rashid Khan), he has got me out on a lot of times but I knew the sort of lines and lengths he is gonna bowl,” Pollard said upon receiving the Player of the Match award.
“I just backed myself. If he bowls short, I am gonna go across, and if he comes full, I am gonna back my strength which is to hit straight. He bowled three fuller balls and it was right into my arc, so I couldn't stop at that point of time. I had to get the maximum,” the right-hander explained his thought process.
After Pollard’s run out, Jordan took Brave home with a boundary on the penultimate delivery. It is Brave’s fifth win of the season in seven matches. While they are placed at the second spot on the points table, the Rockets are ranked fourth with three wins and three losses.
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