Updated October 26th, 2021 at 23:23 IST
South Africa's unorthodox Kieron Pollard dismissal right out of MS Dhoni's 2010 playbook
South Africa's field placement for Kieron Pollard during today's T20 World Cup match triggered a memory in the mind of fans from back in the 2010 IPL final
Advertisement
South Africa's field placement for Kieron Pollard during Tuesday's T20 World Cup match triggered a memory in the mind of fans. They took to Twitter to recall how MS Dhoni had a similar field placement for the West Indies big-hitter in IPL 2010.
For those of you who do not remember, it was the year 2010, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings were up against each other in the IPL final and Pollard was taking the bowlers to the cleaners and was pulling the game away from CSK. That is when MS Dhoni placed Matthew Hayden next to the bowler in a straightish mid-off position, something that is not a very common fielding position.
However, the decision to place Hayden turned to be smart as Pollard ended up hitting it straight into his hands off Albie Morkel's bowling. Fast forward almost 11 years, and South Africa adopted a very similar approach and dismissed the West Indies captain.
'Terrific catch by Rassie van der Dussen'
With the West Indies at 136-6 in their final over, Dwaine Pretorious ran in hard bowling at the Caribbean side's captain Pollard. His medium-paced delivery pitched a foot outside the off stump and Pollard caught it hard on the half-volley. The ball cannoned off the bat, straight and true, with the bowler Pretorious and umpire Aleem Dar just barely managing to get out of its way. However, the ball went on to find van der Dussen who was well stationed behind the umpire for just such a shot, managing to grab the ball, dismissing the giant Pollard.
Let's take a look at some of the reactions that came in on Twitter after the catch.
South Africa recreated the dismissal of Pollard from the 2010 IPL final again in T20 World Cup 2021 - that was a terrific catch from RVD.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 26, 2021
MSD started it by keeping long on straight when Polly was Batting , but after that none got succes with that placement ..
— Thoufee De Villiers ❤️ (@Thoufee_fir) October 26, 2021
Bavuma kept Dussen at mid on straight back of umpire and pollard holed it
Good Placement and glad he continued with the same fielding even after fours
He almost caught it!
— Vinesh Prabhu (@prabhu_vinesh94) October 26, 2021
MSD plot to Pollard IPL 2010 final
Had same field setup in a match and Hayden caught Pollard 🔥
— 🐐 (@FOREVER_VK_FAN) October 26, 2021
MSD the mastermind 💙 https://t.co/7SlNdQmp7b
South Africa beat West Indies by 8 wickets
Meanwhile, Aiden Markram struck a whirlwind unbeaten fifty as South Africa produced an all-round effort to bounce back strongly from their opening defeat and beat West Indies by eight wickets to secure their first win in the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup in Dubai on Tuesday.
Both South Africa and West Indies started their Super 12 campaign on a losing note. While the Proteas were handed a five-wicket defeat by Australia, West Indies sank to six-wicket loss against England. South Africa will next play Sri Lanka in their third Group 1 match on October 30, while West Indies will take on Bangladesh a day earlier.
(With PTI inputs)
Advertisement
Published October 26th, 2021 at 23:14 IST
Your Voice. Now Direct.
Send us your views, we’ll publish them. This section is moderated.