At the Utilita Bowl, Kieron Pollard’s incredible hitting exhibition lifted Southern Brave to an exciting two-wicket victory over Trent Rockets, bringing his team level on points with Oval Invincibles at the top of the table.
Before hitting Rashid Khan for five straight sixes in a single set, Pollard had toiled his way to 6 from 14 balls in a match that seemed to be slipping away from the hosts.
After reaching 45 from 23 balls, the former Windies captain was run out, but Chris Jordan remained composed and struck the last delivery of the game for four runs to send Brave home.
Brave was cruising at 43 for 0 in their chase of 127 when Alex Davies took a sharp 28 off Sam Cook and Andre Fletcher was bowled out by a Rashid googly. This caused the innings to collapse.
Before Pollard reversed the tide of the play, John Turner, who had to be taken off the attack in his previous encounter after delivering consecutive beamers, performed an incredible fast bowling stint, collecting 3 for 24, including the match-winning wicket of James Vince for 28.
Before that, Tom Banton of the Rockets was quick to get out of the traps, hitting Akeal Hosein for three fours and a six in the first ten deliveries. Tymal Mills’ opening over saw Adam Lyth smash two boundaries, but the Rockets faltered when Banton (30 from 17) holed out to Pollard at far on in Danny Briggs’ opening set.
With a leg-cutter that got a heavy outside edge and sailed to Davies, who snagged a screamer, Jofra Archer removed Joe Root (16) and Lyth (16) was caught in the deep off Hosein. Briggs had Alex Hales (15) stumped.
Rovman Powell (16) and Lewis Gregory (19) seemed like they would be able to take the Windies T20 captain, but Jordan removed him and Archer (2–18) took care of Gregory with a well-played slower ball. Mills’ third set proved costly, conceding three boundaries.
After forcing the Rockets to settle for 126 for 8, Jordan ended his brilliant bowling effort by removing Luke Wood and Rashid for 3 for 22. The Rockets could only muster 10 runs from the next 10 deliveries.
The Meerkat Match Hero Pollard stated: “At some point, I had to make a play. I had to really try to calculate and choose my bowler because I thought the pitch wasn’t one where you could simply come in and strike the ball, so I started off pretty slowly.
I had to watch what was occurring, but I knew the kind of line and length Rash was going to bowl because I’ve played against him a lot and he’s got me out a number of times. He threw three fuller balls that fell exactly in my arc, and if he had bowled full, I would have backed my strongest asset—hitting straight. I had to acquire the most at that particular moment; I couldn’t stop. Although Rash is an elite bowler, this was merely one of my winning days.”
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