Pollard's game of distinct halves ends well

Kieron Pollard is among the most powerful finishers in the world. Mumbai Indians' batting coach Robin Singh had recently said that Pollard's role is to give the opposition the "jitters". When he walked out to bat at 79 for 3 in Bangalore on Wednesday night, it might have been his team experiencing the jitters, with their asking rate having climbed to 10.42 in a chase of 152. That might have been stroll on an easy-paced, hit-through-the-line Chinnaswamy surface. But here they were presented with a slow surface that offered grip even to the new ball.

Pollard had found that grip as well, earlier in the evening, in the only over he bowled - the 18th of Royal Challengers Bangalore's innings. But he had become too predictable, sending down slower ball after slower ball, and leaked 22 plus a leg bye. This meant that the hosts boosted their total to 151 for 4 from 98 for 4 in 15.3 overs.

But Pollard recovered from that onslaught with one of his own. He finished the match for Mumbai with an unbeaten 35 off 19 balls. Twenty minutes before his 29th birthday, Pollard was celebrating in the middle with Jos Buttler.

This was still anyone's game when Mumbai were 84 for 3 in 14 overs. Shane Watson, Royal Challengers' in-form bowler who had three overs left at that point, bowled the 15th over. He marginally missed his yorkers and offered width, and Pollard clouted a flat six over long-on and followed it with a punchy drive to the right of sweeper cover for four.

AB de Villiers claimed a stunning catch in the 16th over to get rid of Ambati Rayudu for 44 off 47 balls, but that did not stop Pollard from attacking Watson again to grab hold of the game. Having ducked under a loopy bouncer, which was called a wide, Pollard launched a full ball over long-off for his 400th six in T20s off the first legal ball of the 17th. He then sliced and whipped Watson for successive fours to bring the equation down to 26 off 18 balls. Pollard had flayed 26 off 10 balls from Watson to take the pressure off Buttler, who later showed off his hitting range as well.

Things did not go quite as well with the ball for Pollard. When Rohit Sharma eventually turned to him, both fine leg and third man were inside the circle and Pollard dropped hints that he was going to bowl slower balls or cutters. His first ball was floated outside off at 105kph and KL Rahul, having waited for the ball to arrive, swatted it over square leg for six. Rahul deflected the next one off his pads for one and then Sachin Baby threw his bat too early at a cutter for a dot. He adjusted, waited more patiently for the next two balls and clubbed them both for sixes. Baby capped the over by pulling a short, slower ball to the square-leg boundary. Pollard was left seething, but then he redeemed himself with the bat.

Mumbai will want him to do more of the same with the bat and better with the ball as the tournament reaches its climax. Before this game, Pollard had hit a 17-ball half-century against Kolkata Knight Riders, but by the time he had come in Rohit's own half-century had already ensured that game was Mumbai's. He has had little else to contribute this season, with 168 runs in nine innings and having conceded 81 runs from six overs.

That his bowling and fielding have not been at full tilt is perhaps because he is returning from a lengthy injury lay-off; a knee injury ended Pollard's Ram Slam T20 Challenge last year and then forced him out of the subsequent Big Bash League and World T20. He will know that Mumbai also have Corey Anderson, who could be similarly unstoppable with the bat if he gets going and perhaps offers more with the ball than Pollard. The New Zealand allrounder has been on the sidelines for all 11 Mumbai games so far. Pollard will know he needs to find more consistency to keep justifying his place in the XI. With the bat on Wednesday, he did state a solid case to stick with him.