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At the Utilita Bowl, Kieron Pollard’s incredible hitting exhibition lifted Southern Brave to an exciting two-wicket victory over Trent Rockets, bringing his team level on points with Oval Invincibles at the top of the table.
Before hitting Rashid Khan for five straight sixes in a single set, Pollard had toiled his way to 6 from 14 balls in a match that seemed to be slipping away from the hosts.
After reaching 45 from 23 balls, the former Windies captain was run out, but Chris Jordan remained composed and struck the penultimate delivery of the game for four runs to send Brave home.
Brave was cruising at 43 for 0 in their chase of 127 when Alex Davies took a sharp 28 off Sam Cook and Andre Fletcher was bowled out by a Rashid googly. This caused the innings to collapse.
Before Pollard reversed the tide of the play, John Turner, who had to be taken off the attack in his previous encounter after bowling consecutive beamers, performed an incredible fast bowling stint, collecting 3 for 24, including the match-winning wicket of James Vince for 28.
Before that, Tom Banton of the Rockets was quick to get out of the traps, hitting Akeal Hosein for three fours and a six in the first ten deliveries. Tymal Mills’ opening over saw two boundaries struck by Adam Lyth, but Banton (30 from 17) holed out to Pollard at long-on in Danny Briggs’ opening set and the Rockets stuttered.
Pollard, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: “I had to make a play at some point. I was really slow to start but I didn’t think it was a pitch where you could just come in and hit the ball, so I had to really try and calculate and pick my bowler.
“I’ve played against Rash a lot and he’s got me out a lot of times so I had to see what was happening but I knew the sort of line and length he was going to bowl. If he bowled full I was going to back my strength which is hitting straight and he bowled three fuller balls and it was right in my arc. I couldn’t stop at that point in time, I had to get maximum. Rash is a world-class bowler but this was just one of the days where I took victory.”