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They can’t keep a good man down: Watch Kieron Pollard hit out at critics in style

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West Indies limited-overs captain Kieron Pollard has been in the eyes of the critics ever since the poor showing by the then defending champions in the 2021 T20 World Cup. However, instead of getting bogged down by it, he hit out at them in a very unique style. 

After winning the five-match T20I series against World Cup semi-finalists and one of the top limited-overs sides England, Pollard sang the iconic lines from a classic song by Sizzla to start his post-match interview. Just as the presenter asked how he was feeling, cutting him in between, Pollard sang, “They can't keep a good man down, always keep a smile when they want me to frown.”

Captain Pollard and coach Phil Simmons have been criticised over the dropping of Odean Smith from the third T20I of the series. Supposed leaks were floated in the Caribbean media circles as well claiming that there was unrest inside the West Indian dressing room and fast bowler Odean Smith was victimised. 

West Indies coach and board have come out heavily against the allegations ever since and have quashed all claims made in the media.

West Indies won the fifth and final game of the series by 17 runs thanks to a record-breaking last over by Jason Holder who picked four wickets in four balls to bowl out the entire England team. The series was tied at 2-2 prior to the final game.

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Jason Holder takes four wickets in four balls, helps Windies lift T20I series

With 20 required from the last over and a set Sam Billings at the crease alongside a hard-hitting Chris Jordan, England would have thought that there was still a great chance for them to chase the total down and win the series which had been squared at 2-2 before the fifth and last game at Barbados. But West Indies’ all-weather all-rounder, Jason Holder had other ideas. After bowling a no-ball on the very first ball, Holder came back with a dot ball and built pressure on Jordan who till then had faced nine balls and scored only seven runs off it. In an effort to clear the boundary, he was caught at the deep square leg by Hayden Walsh Jr. Walsh Jr was once again in action when Sam Billings, trying to clear the fence was caught off guard by the slowness of the delivery and hit straight to deep square leg. On a hat-trick, Holder didn’t go for the fancy yorker, rather bowled into the wicket once again to the new man Adil Rashid. It worked brilliantly well as Rashid was caught at long-on by Fabian Allen, making Holder the first West Indian in history to take a hat-trick in T20Is. There were two opportunities for Holder on the next two balls. He could make it four in four balls and become only the third bowler in the history of T20 internationals to do so and at the same time bowl out England completely. The six-foot four-inch Holder did both as he bowled a yorker to Saqib Mahmood which was good enough to remove one of the bails of the stump and get himself etched in the history books. Prior to Holder, Sri Lankan legend Lasith Malinga and Ireland’s Curtis Campher have achieved the feat of taking four wickets in four balls. Prior to that historic over, England had done well to get as close to the 180 runs target as possible. Though it lost wickets at regular intervals with the longest partnership being 46 between Tom Banton and James Vince. But thanks to Vince’s second T20I fifty (55 off 35) and a quickfire 41 off Billings, England remained in contention till the very last over. Earlier in the evening, West Indies after starting well with Kyle Mayers and Brandon King, were powered by heavy-hitting from captain Kieron Pollard and centurion from the third game, Rovaman Powell. Both remained unbeaten on 41 and 35 respectively.

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Kohli wanted to continue captaining India in the longest format: Ricky Ponting

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has revealed that he was shocked after Indian captain Virat Kohli announced he's stepping down from India’s red-ball captaincy late in January 2022. According to Ponting, the has had a chat with Kohli during the first leg of the 2021 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was held between April 9 and May 2 and during that discussion, the then all-format skipper of India had revealed that he was thinking of stepping down from limited-overs captaincy but never said any such plans about Tests. “Yes, it did actually (surprise me)," Ponting said about Kohli’s decision of stepping down. "Probably the main reason why is because I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat during the first part of the IPL (2021) before it got postponed,” added the Delhi Capitals skipper in his interview with the ICC website. Talking about Kohli’s love for the longest format, the 47-year-old said, "He was talking then about stepping away (from captaincy) from white-ball cricket and how passionate he was to continue on to be Test match captain. He just loved and cherished that job and that post so much. Obviously, the Indian Test team had achieved a lot under his leadership. When I heard it, I was really, really surprised. You only have to watch him on the field for an hour of the day's play to realise how passionate he is about that job and the role, how much he wants the team to win and how much he wants the best for Indian cricket." Saying that India is one of the toughest countries to captain and that everything has a shelf life, Ponting said that if we look in hindsight, it was probably a smart decision by Kohli. "I think there is potentially a shelf-life for international cricket captains and even coaches. Virat's been there for close to seven years now. If there's a country in the world that's the most difficult to captain, it’s probably India because of just how popular the game is and how much every single Indian love to see the fortunes of the Indian cricket team, whether they are good or bad. You weigh all those things up,” he said.