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Kieron Pollard has been the face of several T20 franchises, with more than 10,000 runs and almost 300 wickets to his name in the shortest format.
The Trinidadian has featured in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for over a decade now, playing 164 matches for the Mumbai Indians (MI). While his strike rate with the bat is almost 150, he has also picked up 60 wickets in the cash-rich league.
Kieron Pollard has also been involved in MI's team-planning and mentoring the franchise's youngsters. The 33-year-old will surely be an asset for the Mumbai Indians in the years to come as well. His IPL career began in 2010.
Kieron Pollard: A T20 gem who started his IPL career in 2010
Kieron Pollard was impressive as a youngster in Trinidad and Tobago. He featured in several limited-overs games for his side and the West Indies, making his ODI debut in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He was also a part of the 2008 Stanford Super Series, starring for the Stanford Superstars against England.
However, it was during the 2009-10 season that Kieron Pollard became a globetrotting T20 performer. In the inaugural edition of the Champions League Twenty20, he played for his home team, Trinidad and Tobago. The all-rounder caught the world's attention with his performances in the competition.
He did quite well in the match against New South Wales. At one stage, T&T needed 51 runs off the last four overs, having only four wickets in hand.
Kieron Pollard, who was batting at seven off seven balls, decided to take matters into his own hands. He added 47 runs from the next 11 deliveries he faced, single-handedly winning the game for Trinidad and Tobago.
Although New South Wales won the Champions League Twenty20, it was Kieron Pollard who garnered all the attention. Soon enough he was signed by Somerset in England and Southern Redbacks in Australia.
He became a hot property for the IPL teams too. There was aggressive bidding for Kieron Pollard and he was eventually bought by Mumbai Indians. MI had banked on the potential of an exceptional player, and the buy was to give them dividends for years to come.
He made an immediate impact in his debut IPL season. Kieron Pollard took a few matches to settle in before unleashing his magic. His role was that of an explosive middle-order batsman and a medium pacer.
His first major performance was a 20 off 9 balls against Chennai Super Kings. His quick-paced innings helped the Mumbai Indians to chase down 181. He flopped in the next game, but returned with two quick-fire knocks against the Kings XI Punjab (20 off 13) and the Deccan Chargers (21 off 10), with MI winning both games.
His best performance during the league stage came in the 47th game of the 2010 IPL against the Delhi Daredevils at home.
MI got to a decent start but hadn't really picked up their scoring rate. They stood at 133/4 when Kieron Pollard walked in at the start of the 18th over. He tore into Ashish Nehra and Andrew McDonald to help the Mumbai Indians add 50 runs in the last three overs.
Pollard scored 45 off 13 balls before bowling four excellent overs, giving away only 15 runs. His contribution was a quintessential T20 performance.
Yet this wasn't even Pollard's best performance in IPL 2010. He unleashed his fury once more in the semi-finals against Royal Challengers Bangalore, helping MI reach their maiden IPL final.
Mumbai batted first and got to a decent start before a trademark Kieron Pollard effort pushed their total to 184. MI scored 40 off the last 14 balls, with the Trinidadian taking just 13 deliveries to score 33..
He then bowled superbly, getting rid of Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, and Robin Uthappa to win the game for the Mumbai Indians.
A Suresh Raina-special prevented Mumbai from winning the IPL, even though Pollard scored 27 off 10 in a brilliant effort. But the legend of Kieron Pollard had already been established.
While Pollard had featured in T20 cricket before the IPL, it was his success in the cash-rich league which raised his stocks in the cricketing world. Today, he can walk into any premier T20 side in the world and leads the West Indies in limited-overs cricket.
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