Pollard joins elite club with six sixes in an over

EVEN as West Indies captain Kieron Pollard struck an impressive six sixes from one over to join an elite club as the third batsmen to do so in International cricket, he was still tough in his own personal assessment of his performance against Sri Lanka at the Coolidge Ground in Antigua.

Pollard came in after the Sri Lanka leg-spinner, Akila Dananjaya, ran through some of the West Indies top order to claim a hat-trick in the fourth over and had the home team reeling in their run chase. But on Dananjaya’s return in the sixth over, the powerful Pollard took him to task.

Ball after ball was dispatched over the boundary rope with the West Indies Test captain Jason Holder a mere spectator at the other end.

Pollard finished on a quickfire 38 runs off 11 balls as he was dismissed attempting a defensive shot.

But for the middle-order power hitter, he was disappointed not to be in the middle to ensure the West Indies victory.

“From a personal point of view it is nice to be in the same company as Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh as a power hitter.”

Singh is the only other batsman to have struck six sixes in an over in T20 which was against England, while Gibbs was the first person to accomplish the feat at the World Cup in 2007 against the Netherlands.

In Antigua, over a decade later, they were joined by Pollard.

“A couple of things went through my mind before the sixth ball. I thought, ‘Should I go for the six or take the 30 runs in the over?’ He went around the wicket and bowled it onto my pads, I told myself, ‘Wait Polly, take a chance.’”

Pollard mentioned that “these are some of the things that you dream of and it actually coming to reality is a surreal moment, albeit in a winning cause, which I think is more important”.

Even with this huge accomplishment, Pollard was thinking of the team first.

“I would’ve love to have carried on and be there at the end. I pride myself on trying to finish games and hopeful with personal achievements along the way yes, but whatever the team requires.

“My personal assessment is that I failed in the sense of not being able to take the team to the end.”