The former West Indies T20I captain Kieron Pollard becomes the first batter to touch the rarest feat in the shortest format of the game in an official manner. Even at the age of 37, having taken retirement from international cricket and the Indian Premier League (IPL), he has achieved something that no one has before him.
He achieved the feat during ‘The Hundred 2024’ game between the Southern Brave and Trent Rockets at the Rose Bowl ground, where he played a major innings to contribute to the home side’s victory from a struggling position, where he felt tough for them to chase the score.
Batting first in the afternoon, the Lewis Gregory-led side started quite well with an opening stand of 46 runs in 29 balls before they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. Adam Lyth, Alex Hales, and Tom Baton failed to convert their scores, as was the case with the former England captain Joe Root.
Rovman Powell wasn’t finding the sweet spot of his bat, as he made 16 runs in 14 balls. Kieron Pollard dropped a comfortable catch to start the day on a negative note. But some terrific death bowling from Chris Jordan, who finished with figures of 3/22 in 20 balls, restricted the hosts to 126/8 in their allotted 100 balls.
Kieron Pollard showed his power to the current T20 superstar Rashid Khan
Just like the visiting side, the Brave also made a solid beginning in their chase, having made 43 runs in the first five sets before losing the plot in the middle. Their situation got worse with every single set, as they lost six wickets in 50 balls, scoring only 35 runs on the board.
Pollard was struggling in the middle for form, as he was neither getting the boundaries nor the singles to release the pressure off his shoulder. Then came a point when the home side needed 49 runs off the last 20 deliveries to secure victory. Rashid Khan, the current superstar of the format, conceded 10 runs for a wicket in 15 balls and came into the attack for the obvious reason.
Kieron Pollard, on six runs off his first 14 balls, pulled the very first ball over deep mid-wicket for a huge six. The second ball of the set was belted with power, while the third one was lofted. As most of the spinners do under pressure, Rashid fired the fourth one as the batter was ready.
The West Indies all-rounder made room to slice it over the long-off region for another six. The fifth ball was a back-foot punch over deep mid-wicket for the same result. He finished with 45 runs in 23 balls at a strike rate of 195.65.
That wasn’t the first time the Trinidad-born had nailed all the deliveries for sixes. During their home T20I game at Coolidge against Sri Lanka, he smashed Akila Dhananjaya for the same result on six consecutive occasions to carry his side over the line. In the 132-run chase, the West Indies were struggling at 62/4 in five overs, as the bowler had just celebrated his hat-trick.
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But Kieron Pollard nailed a 38-run knock in 11 balls to secure the win for the home side. He is now the only player in the history of the game to hit sixes in every ball of the same over twice across official formats.
The legend of the format is the third highest run-getter of T20s, with 13118 runs at an average of 31.30 and a strike rate of over 150, celebrating 59 half-centuries and one century.