Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori feels Kieron Pollard showed no intent after Mumbai Indians suffered their eighth loss of the season against Lucknow Super Giants by 36 runs at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
MI had to chase down 169 runs and the onus was on veteran Kieron Pollard after his team found themselves in a rut at 67-4.
However, the former West Indies captain could only manage 19 runs off 20 balls. Pollard failed to achieve any kind of impetus in his batting innings as he could not get going. In fact, Tilak Varma scored 38 runs off 26 balls and gave a glimmer of hope to his team but he didn’t receive any support from the experienced batter.
Pollard wanted to take the game deep but he left too many to get in the last few overs. The right-hander was tested with short-pitch deliveries from Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, and Mohsin Khan as the LSG bowlers were right on the money at the fag end of the innings.
In fact, Pollard has been in poor form as he has scored 115 runs in eight matches at an average of 16.43 and a strike rate of 127.77 in the ongoing season for MI.
Daniel Vettori told ESPN Cricinfo, “The belief that Kieron Pollard could just walk out and miraculously chase down 12-14 an over when you’ve lost 7 games in a row, those things are not going to come together. You’ve got to acknowledge that LSG did bowl well and they executed their strategies well.”
He added: “When Pollard comes to the crease, everyone has the same sort of plans, but to execute them is not easy. But in the end, it looked like he just had no intent. It looked like he was going to wait till the last minute to try and get the runs.”
Former RCB skipper feels Pollard didn’t look confident in his approach as he failed to get going. Pollard could not hit the ground running, which was the need of the hour for Mumbai Indians.
“I wouldn’t say Pollard’s innings was poor. He tried but he could not hit the ball well. That’s not the Pollard that we’ve been watching over the years. He is the perfect guy for such situations. But unfortunately, he just didn’t look confident. The team losing 7 games and then coming into the 8th game under pressure, so everything in it happened to him today,”
MI will play their next match against Rajasthan Royals at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Saturday.
