In his team’s four-wicket Twenty20 win over Sri Lanka on Wednesday, West Indies Captain Kieran Pollard became the third man to hit six sixes in an international over.
This feat took place in the sixth over when the bowler Akhila Dananjaya just celebrated his hattrick after dismissing Ewin Lewis, Chris Gayle, and Nicholas Pooran, bringing the West Indies to 52-3 in pursuit of 132.
And as the match moved to the next over, the West Indies Captain tore off the bowler’s excitement by taking 36 runs in a single over, thus hitting six sixes consecutively.
By doing this, Pollard became the third man to get 36 runs in an international over after South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs who did this against the Netherlands in the 2007 World Cup, and India’s Yuvraj Singh, who also won this feat in the 2007 World Cup against England.
Though Pollard was eventually out for 38 off 11 balls, the team already chased down the target of 132 in the 14th over when Jason Holder hit his team’s 13th six.
“I felt after hitting a couple of sixes, I understood how the pitch plays, it was important to be positive and play your shots,” Pollard said. “Back yourselves to clear the boundary.”
“A couple of things went through my mind before the sixth ball, I thought should I go for the six or take the 30 runs in an over, I told myself, “Wait, Polly, take a chance”– he said.
On March 5 and 7, the series’s second and third games will be played at the Coolidge Cricket Ground, followed by three one-day internationals and two tests.
