Pollard and Roach fire up

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Submitted by Dhinakaran(25)
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1 March, 2011 - 04:50

There is an incredibly overused phrase in cricketing circles, which goes something like ‘if he hits it, it stays hit’. After last night’s outstanding performance, it seems that the phrase was created to describe the indomitable Kieron Pollard. Thankfully moved up the order by captain Darren Sammy, Pollard arrived just three balls into the batting powerplay and although he only stayed at the crease for 27 deliveries, there was no doubt that his was the most important innings of the match.

Following on from Devon Smith and Chris Gayle’s strong foundation, Pollard found himself at the crease at the ideal moment, and combining with Ramnaresh Sarwan he plundered 60 runs at over two runs per delivery. I thought after witnessing Chris Gayle’s six at The Oval in the World T20, I would never see a bigger six, but Pollard’s blow into the top tier of the Feroz Shah Kolta stadium was truly enormous. The other great aspect of Pollard’s hitting was, as commentator Robin Jackman rightly pointed out, the ease of his stroke play. He just makes it look SO easy!! I think you probably get the point that it was astonishing, and as such, certainly check out our highlights here.

The other performance of note was that of Kemar Roach, who became only the fifth bowler to take a hat-trick in a World Cup match. Roach, like Pollard, is a young and exciting glimpse into the Windies future and his return of 6-27 was a just reward.

Excitement about the Windies performance must of course be tempered by the fact that the Netherlands was their opposition. However, this victory was further proof that the Windies, not unlike Pakistan, are an incredibly dangerous side when they manage to get a majority of their players to perform to their peak on the one day. Whether it will happen again in the tournament is unknown, but even if it does not, at least they will give us one fantastic memory of smashing stroke play, and rapid fast bowling.

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