Kieron Pollard achieves huge CPL milestone during sixathon against SKNP, slams seven 6s in 8 balls - WATCH
Trinbago Knight Riders became the first team to seal a playoff spot in the ongoing edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) as the four-time champions beat the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by 12 runs to clinch their sixth win of the season, riding on a Kieron Pollard special.
Why did he bow out of IPL three years ago? That's the question everyone has in their minds anytime and every time Kieron Pollard lights up a cricket field with his six-hitting prowess and power, which has been quite often since 2022, across various other T20 leagues. Monday morning in Tarouba was yet another example of the same, as the 38-year-old went on a rampage against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, hitting seven gigantic sixes within a span of eight balls.
Pollard gauged the pitch a bit, let the skipper Nicholas Pooran do the heavy lifting and was still going run-a-ball before he broke the shackles. The first one to be on the receiving end of the carnage was Navin Bidaisee, who got hit over square leg and had his lines and lengths in disarray. Bidaisee then got hit straight down the ground and then over long leg, all within four deliveries.
What followed next was Waqar Salamkheil getting dispatched all over the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba. Pollard dismissed Salamkheil, smashing four sixes in the last four balls of the over, to cumulatively hit seven in the last eight he faced. It was an exhibition and a half.
Pollard ended up scoring a rapid 65 off just 29 balls, which helped him earn a couple of milestones in T20 cricket. Pollard breached the 3,000-mark, becoming only the third player to score 3k runs in the CPL, while also going past the 4,000 mark in the West Indies. Pollard and Pooran both became the fourth and fifth batters in the same innings to score 4,000-plus T20 runs in the Caribbean.
Most runs in the CPL
3483 - Johnson Charles (AH/BR/SLK/JT), in 122 innings
3425 - Andre Fletcher (SLK/SKNP), in 123 innings
3032 - Kieron Pollard (BR/SLK/TKR), in 120 innings
Most runs in T20 cricket in the West Indies
4663 - Andre Fletcher (in 186 innings)
4445 - Johnson Charles (in 175 innings)
4159 - Lendl Simmons (in 155 innings)
4048 - Kieron Pollard (in 170 innings)
4047 - Nicholas Pooran (in 162 innings)
Despite all the hitting from the duo, 180 was a gettable target, but the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots needed everything to go right for them. Evin Lewis and Andre Fletcher started well again, stitching an opening partnership of 96; however, the wheels came off for the visitors the moment the partnership came to an end. The lower order had too much to do after the Patriots lost six wickets for 44 runs.