West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard has played match-winning knocks for Mumbai in difficult circumstances. He has made a habit to take MI out of doldrums on difficult wickets like in Hyderabad. He has plucked some breath taking catches in the field, showing his agility time and again.
This season, he played his part in three straight wins for the Mumbai based franchise during the league. In the final, he showed his love affair with Hyderabad by scoring 41 runs in 25 balls to take MI to 149 when other batters were struggling and it proved winning total in the end.
He was the stand in skipper against Kings XI Punjab at Wankhede Stadium and showed extra responsibility to come up the order and stay till the end to notch up his highest IPL score of 83 runs in 31 balls. In his breathtaking knock he targeted bowlers smartly and cleared boundaries with ridiculous ease showing his immense power is still intact. It was MI's biggest chase (198) at Wankhede stadium.
The Trinidadian has come down the order mostly for MI and has got them to big scores with cameos and played some match winning knocks. That day he did the incredible by taking his team home despite 133 required in last ten overs.
Pollard wasn’t retained at first but MI used Right to Match card in the 2018 IPL auction to keep him in the Blues squad.
He thanked the management and fans for showing faith in him, but wasn’t able to replicate it with performances. He had a poor IPL last season getting 133 runs in nine games he played. He was dropped also for the first time by the franchise.
This season pressure was on him to deliver and he played his part in four wins including the final.
“When you are losing, people tend have sort of opinions they have. It doesn’t matter to me. I am cricketer, I am 31, I have cricket left in me and people close to me back me, that is the most important thing. Things didn’t work last year but last year is now gone we have life. This season I came back and the team showed faith in me again. It is matter of coming out enjoying game and that’s exactly what I am doing,” he said after the match-winning knock against Kings XI.
Barring 2011, Pollard has maintained above 130-strike rate in all previous nine seasons for MI and this time he was striking over 156.
“Pollard was good with the bat. He won few matches for them and batted well in the final. He is a match winner,” Lalchand Rajput said.
