Felt like a Test batsman coming in at No.3: Kieron Pollard

Delhi Daredevils faced another humiliating loss, following an all round performance from the Mumbai Indians outfit. The chase was on for Delhi as they had to mimic another mammoth target of over 200 but the batting proliferation of the previous match was not to be replicated as they were beaten by 146 runs, a huge margin in IPL history. With the loss, Delhi’s road to the playoffs have gotten tougher as they are in the sixth position with the Kings XI Punjab above them having an extra match to boot. The Mumbai Indians who were put to bat by Zaheer Khan made 212 with the loss of just 3 wickets led by Kieron Pollard and Lendl Simmons who scored 63* and 66 respectively.

The match was followed by a question and answer round between the two players. Their talk mostly centred on Simmons being benched till the match against the Daredevils. Simmons stated that even though he hasn’t been getting as many opportunities as he would have liked, he’s been coping with it really well. He remarked that he has been practising hard in the nets and working out in the gym, keeping his mind and body ready, biding his time waiting for his opportunity to come. He also brought into attention the advantage of getting in early.

The role reversed as Simmons became the interviewer and asked Pollard how he felt about coming to bat at No.3. Simmons said he was surprised to see the burly West Indian come out at the fall of the first wicket. Pollard said he felt like a test batsman coming out at one-down and was just looking to bat deep. The conversation ended with Pollard jokingly remarking that “will get my white clothes ready,” said Pollard to iplt20.com. “I’ll put it under my Mumbai Indians’ clothes so that my technique is right when I come out to bat at No. 3”, indicating that wearing the Test whites will help his technique.

Mumbai Indians are comfortably placed at the top of the table and all set to go hammer and tonks in the playoffs and with these two West Indians in form, that task has just gotten easier.

– Written by Gokul Narayanan