Former India pacer Irfan Pathan opened up on Kieron Pollard’s dismissal in last night’s IPL 2022 clash between the Mumbai Indians (MI) and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Pollard smashed 14 runs, including a four and a six, before falling prey to Maheesh Theekshana. He hit straight down to Shivam Dube, who was specifically placed next to the sightscreen for that as well.
During a discussion on Star Sports, Irfan Pathan said: “His (Pollard’s) strength is always to hit straight down the ground. Because of that, the fielder is placed straight. He is asked to hit across but he doesn’t agree, he also looks to hit straight. To a certain extent, you are not able to keep your ego aside.”
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He continued, “The bigger the player you become, the more you play, the more matches you win, you think – ‘You have laid a trap and I will show my strength’. He tries to show his strength, tries to hit straight down the ground and loses his wicket. But probably his thinking is that he hits sixes when the fielder is placed at long-on or long-off, so he can hit here as well.”
Notably, Kieron Pollard fell prey to a strange field position set by MS Dhoni in the IPL 2010 final as well where he hit Albie Morkel straight to Matthew Hayden, who was placed at straightish mid-off on that game as well. Piyush Chawla also opened up about the unconventional field set for Pollard.
He responded: “The way the field was set, it is not that it was set like that today for the first time. This has been going on for many years. It’s just that he hasn’t been dismissed there for the last few years. But today he felt that the ball was in his area and always it happens that if the ball hits the middle of the bat, it doesn’t matter even if the fielder is there but this time, it went straight into the hands and Kieron Pollard had to pay for it.”
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However, Pollard’s dismissal reduced the Mumbai Indians to 111/6 in the 17th over. Although they still managed to put up 155 runs on the board in 20 overs, CSK reached the target, with Dhoni hitting 16 runs off the last four balls as well.
