Kieron Pollard of West Indies in action against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 Group B – Kia
Oval. Action Images / Paul Harding Livepic
Pollard, Pooran smash IPL strike rate records
By Azad Ali
CRICFNO’s review of the 2020 Indian
Premier League (IPL) has rated West Indies
cricketers as the top smashers of the ball
in the recently concluded competition in
the UAE.
West Indies Kieron Pollard, Nicholas
Pooran, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine and
Hetmyer were all rated among the top
smashers of the ball at the world’s premier
Twenty20 cricket competition.
Pollard, who won consecutive IPL titles
in 2019 and 2020 and as stand-in captain of
champions, Mumbai Indians for a couple
of matches due to injury of regular captain
Rohit Sharma, was best overall. Pollard
also captained the Trinbago Knight Riders
to the 2020 Caribbean Premier league
(CPL) title.
Caribbean L 30 ife, December 4-10, 2020
The West Indies players in the IPL 2020
had an average smart strike rate of 166.44
this season, miles ahead of other nationalities.
Given at least five representatives, the
second best smart strike rate from a country
was South Africa’s 150.
“Kieron Pollard’s eye-popping conventional
strike rate of 191.42 translated into a
strike rate of 224.06, the best in the season-
without qualification,” Cricinfo states.
Pooran is the only other batsman with
a smart strike rate of over 200, clocking in
at 200.73, whereas his conventional strike
rate was 169.71.
Most of the West Indies brigade scored
high on smart strike rates. Shimron Hetmyer
and Sunil Narine both finished at
over 140.
ICC Awards
Continued from Page 29
7, 2020 from both the men’s and
women’s game.
The ICC, the sport’s world governing
body said in a media release
that the nominees for each of the
categories have been determined by
an awards nominations committee,
according to on-field performances
and overall achievements for at least
five years during the period under
review.
Former West Indies fast bowler
and TV commentator, Ian Bishop, a
member of the committee, said it was
tough shortlisting the candidates for
the awards.
Gayle, a self-proclaimed “Universe
Boss,” has been nominated for the
ICC Men’s T20 Cricketer of the Decade.
It is recognition of the best overall
performance in the men’s Twenty20
format during the performance
period.
He is challenged in the category
by Australian opener Aaron Finch,
Afghanistan off-spinner Rashid
Khan, India batting machine Virat
Kholi, Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith
Malinga, India opener Rohit Sharma
and retired South Africa leg-spinner
Imran Tahir.
Taylor, the West Indies women’s
captain for the past four years, has
been nominated for the prestigious
Rachel Heyhoe-Flint Award for the
ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Decade,
which recognizes the best overall
performer in women’s international
cricket — across all formats
— Test, ODIs and T20s during the
performance period.
Dottin has been nominated for the
ICC Women’s T20 Cricketer of the
Decade.
of umpiring and this plan was made
about two years ago.
“These women will undergo training
to get them ready for that level of
umpiring,” the official said.
“The panel is geared towards
improving the skills of the women’s
empires for the 2022 50-Over Women’s
World Cup in two years’ time but
prior to that, there are other women’s
competitions that they may get
themselves involved in so that CWI
could look at them and look at their
performance and take a cue from
that,” the cricket official said.
The 50-Over tournament was
scheduled to be held from Feb. 6 to
March 7, 2021 but was postponed
because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the 2017 ICC Women’s 50-Over
Word Cup in England and Wales
there were 13 umpires, but only four
were women.
Bay Oval.
Poor bowling in the two Twenty20s
and weak batting from the World Twenty20
Champions condemned them to
their two successive defeats.
West Indies bowling was erratic, like
in the first Twenty20 and New Zealand
batsman Glenn Phillips blasted a record,
maiden century (108) with 10 fours and
eight sixes in a 51-ball assault to record
the fastest hundred by a New Zealander,
setting up the Blackcaps an imposing
238 from their allotted 20 overs in the
rain-affected match.
West Indies had no answer for Phillips
and left-hander Devon Conway as
the two blasted the bowling to put on a
world record 184 for the third wicket.
None of the West Indies batsmen
could exhibit aggression against the
New Zealand bowlers- handful got
starts but their no carry on- and the
regional team slumped to 166 for nine
from their 20 overs.
West Indies Captain Kieron Pollard
hit the top score of 28, while Kemo Paul
struck 26 not out towards the end and
Kyle Myers made 20.
The inclement weather swayed the
West Indies from heeding the statistics
that suggests teams bating first at the
Bay Oval have won all of the previous
six matches.
In the first T20 West Indies lost to
the hosts New Zealand by five wickets
on the Duckworth-Lewis method at
Eden Park, Auckland.
The game was reduced to 16 overs
after three rain stoppages during the
West Indies innings. Chasing a revised
target of 176 in 10 overs, New Zealand
reached 179 for 5 with four deliveries
to spare.
Continued from Page 29
Continued from Page 29
RAIN STOPS WINDIES WHITEWASH
Umpire panel
West Indies Nicholas Pooran in action
during the ICC Cricket World
Cup aganist England at the The
Ageas Bowl, Southampton, Britain
on June 14, 2019. Action Images via
Reuters/Peter Cziborra, fi le