Ruthless Pollard stuns NSW

It's said that you can win or lose a Twenty20 game in a blink and Kieron Pollard, batting like a man possessed, proved the adage right by engineering a stunning win against New South Wales. 'It's not over until its over' is another one of those cricketing clichés which rarely comes true but tonight was the night for clichés. In a Hyderabad minute, everything changed.

NSW unleashed their two dynamites David Warner and Phillip Hughes who charged them to 170 which seemed more than enough at one stage but Pollard, with a violent 18-ball 54, crafted a remarkable comeback in Twenty20 history.

At 118 for 6, with Denesh Ramdin just run-out, T&T needed a miracle to overhaul NSW's score of 170. But Kieron Pollard delivered them one. It was 16th over that proved to be the game-breaker. Pollard simply went berserk against the medium-pace of Moises Henriques, looting 27 runs. The second ball disappeared to long-off, the third was sliced over point, the fourth, a full toss, was collected by a spectator beyond midwicket boundary, the next, another nervy full toss, was picked up from behind deep square-leg boundary, and the last delivery flew to third man. Game over.

If there was any doubt, it vanished when Simon Katich handed Henriques the responsibility to bowl the 19th over and Pollard finished off the chase with couple of bludgeoned sixes. T&T had come into the second stage of the competition with two points, and Pollard's onslaught increased that tally to four, boosting their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals.