Flu-ent Pollard power for MI
Before his thunderous match winning knock of unbeaten 66 off 27 balls on Monday, Kieron Pollard had struggled to play the big strokes. With an aggregate of 39 runs in four matches at a strike rate of below 83, Pollard’s batting was under scrutiny.
The West Indies all-rounder missed the away game against the Pune Warriors due to a bout of flu. But the Trinidadian power hitter made a grand return to Mumbai Indians playing XI against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede with his second half century of the season.
“I am still sniffling a bit. I missed the game against Pune, due to flu. But I knew how important the game was. I came for practice yesterday, I was striking the ball pretty well,” Pollard said after leading Mumbai Indians to seven-wicket win on Monday.
The 26-year-old not only regained the touch but was at his destructive best, hitting eight power packed sixes and two boundaries. When asked where from the big shots suddenly started to flow from his bat, Pollard appeared humble.
“When you play against opponents, they study you and they are entitled to bowl well. When we played Sunrisers in Hyderabad, they bowled to their strengths, that was their home ground,” he said.
“The situation dictates itself when you walk into bat. At 13 runs an over and if you block two balls, it gets up to 15 in no time. He smashed six sixes in two overs bowled by Thisara Perera and Amit Mishra to ensure the hosts got the required 62 runs in the last four overs with three balls to spare chasing 179.
“At the end of the day you have to take everything in stride and that is how I do it. You come out some days and hit the ball and it is a matter of backing yourself. Today was a good wicket. Anything can happen but today was just one of those days,” Pollard added.
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