Kieron Pollard tries to distract Mumbai Indians’ teammate Jasprit Bumrah

The incident occurred when the veteran batsman went for a pull shot to break the shackles.

Published - 06 Nov 2018, 22:04 IST | Updated - 06 Nov 2018, 22:04 IST

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Windies explosive batsman Kieron Pollard and Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah have been playing together for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the prestigious Indian Premier League (IPL) for quite a few seasons now. Both have been involved in a number of dismissals. Hence, it is evident that both the cricketers would share a healthy camaraderie between each other.

However, there was a moment of rivalry between the duo in the match between India and Windies in Lucknow. The Caribbean team had a massive task ahead of them to track down a mammoth 196 after Rohit Sharma wielded his magic to score his fourth century in T20 cricket. The visiting team lost quite a few wickets pretty early in their run chase, much to their discomfort.

Pollard falls cheaply yet again

Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Darren Bravo and Nicholas Pooran perished inside the eighth over with the visitors requiring 144 runs at almost 12 runs per over. Pollard drilled Kuldeep Yadav once for a boundary, but apart from that, he strained and eventually was dismissed by Bumrah in the 11th over when the veteran batsman went for a pull shot to break the shackles.

Unfortunately, the leather hit the splice of the willow and spooned up in the air only to be caught by Bumrah himself. In the meantime, while Bumrah was steadily settling himself to get hold of the leather, Pollard was tantalisingly close to him. Kieron Pollard was so close to the bowler that he had to move his right hand away, which kind of distracted Bumrah to a significant extent.

From the naked eye, it seemed as if Pollard was trying to distract his IPL teammate. Had Bumrah dropped the catch, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the home team appealed for an ‘Obstructing The Field’ dismissal against Pollard. But that wasn’t the case and the batter had to make the long walk back after notching six runs from 11 runs with the help of one boundary.