The bowling all-rounder


shaun-pollock-adelaide-ovalImage courtesy © Getty Images

 

Shaun Pollock. One of the best all-rounders. He is known for his excellent bowling. But he was really good at batting too. I must say the Proteas didn’t use his full potential as a batsman. Maybe they had other all-rounders like Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener and Andrew Hall. When my schoolmates used to take more academic books from the school library than the permissible limits, I was least bothered about it. To be honest I had never taken anything related to academics. The only thing I stole from my school library was the poster of Shaun Pollock from an edition of sports magazine Sportstar. Even now I remember, along with the picture of Pollock the caption read. “Shaun Pollock. Delivering like a true captain.”

Pollock had excellent variations on any track. He is one of the few batsmen in ODIs to hit four consecutive sixes. During 2002, in a Tri Series in Australia he thrashed fast bowler James Franklin over his head for four consecutive sixes at Perth. His only century in an ODI came against Asian XI, when he represented African XI. In that match he didn’t bowl even a single over. I remember during 2000, in an ODI Tri Series at Sharjah, he repeatedly bowled outswingers to Sachin Tendulkar and he followed that with an inswinger and Sachin was clean bowled. He was an excellent fielder too and is known for his accurate throws from the deep. After his retirement from internationals  he continued playing Twenty20, and I remember even after thirty five plus one of his throws from the deep during an IPL match came right on top of the stumps when the batsman was speeding and it was a touch and go decision for the umpire.

 

  1. Series – South Africa tour of Australia, 3 Match Test Series, 3rd test
  2. Year – 1998
  3. Venue – Adelaide Oval
  4. Date – 30-31 January, 1-3 February, 1998
  5. Result – Draw
  6. Player of the match – Shaun Pollock
  7. Series won by – Australia
  8. Margin – 1-0
  9. Player of the series – Shane Warne

 

Written on June 2016

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