Captain Kieron Pollard entered the record books as he smashed six sixes in an over to give West Indies victory over Sri Lanka by four wickets in the first CG Insurance T20 International on Wednesday night at Coolidge Cricket Ground.
This was the West Indies Men’s team first T20I at this venue, and they restricted the visitors to 131-9 off their 20 overs. In reply, the home side motored to 52 off the first 19 balls thanks to openers Evin Lewis (28) and Lendl Simmons (26). Then, spinner Akila Dananjaya took a hat-trick as West Indies slipped to 54-3.
Pollard arrived at the crease and immediately changed the tempo. He hit Dananjaya for six massive sixes in the sixth over, on his way to a match-winning 38 off 11 balls. He became the first West Indian and third batsman to accomplish this feat in international cricket.
The others are: Yuvraj Sigh of India against England in ICC World T20 tournament in 2007 and Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa against The Netherlands in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Pollard was named the CG Insurance Man-of-the-Match.
Pollard’s first six set the stage – it was a huge slog-sweep over midwicket, while second sailed straight back over the bowler’s head and onto the sightscreen. The third cleared long off and then the fourth was deposited over wide long-on.
His left hand came off the bat for the fifth but he still had enough power to muscle the ball over the legside boundary. The bowler went around the wicket for the sixth ball, but Pollard simply flicked it over deep midwicket and celebrated by taking a bow.
The West Indies reached their victory target off 13.1 overs, scoring 134-6. Jason Holder sealed the victory with a big six to be unbeaten on 29. Earlier left-arm seamer Obed McCoy was the best bowler for West Indies with 2-25 off his four overs.
