Kieron Pollard choses not to field for West Indies during a Free-hit

The three-match ODI series was leveled by the West Indies on Saturday as they beat Australia by 4 wickets. After losing the 1st ODI by a big margin, the 2nd ODI was a must-win game for the Windies in order to keep the series alive. The Kieron Pollard-led team did well in the second ODI to prevent losing the series.

Australian skipper Aaron Finch after winning the toss decided to bat first but the decision was proven wrong by the Windies. The Oz were bundled out for just 187 runs. Matthew Wade and Wes Agar were the only Australian batsman who spent some time on the crease. No other batsman could touch the 20-run mark. Alzarri Joseph and Akeal Hosein picked up 3 wickets each for the West Indies side.

WI were 5 down for 75 while chasing but Pooran and Jason Holder batted brilliantly to take their team home. Both the batsmen scored the fifties with Jason Holder making 52 runs and Pooran making 59*. Nicholas Pooran was named the ‘Man of the Match’. Besides the brilliant performances of Pooran and Holder, there was a bizarre incident which happened during the first innings.

Kieron Pollard refuses to stand at short-leg

Akeal Hosein, the WI spinner, bowled a no-ball in the 16th over of the 1st innings. The batsman Mitchell Starc could not take a run, hence, the batsman did not change. Therefore, according to the no-ball rule, Pollard wasn’t allowed to change the field for the free-hit.

With the restriction of not being able to change the field, kieron Pollard who was standing at the short leg position went out of the field for the free-hit delivery. It is understandable that standing at short-leg for a free hit could be dangerous. Hence Pollard’s leaving the field is quite justifiable. The batsmen could swing the bat hard and if the ball goes towards the short leg, the fielder would have very little time to react.

Pollard was seen standing outside the boundary for the free-hit delivery. Due to this, there occurred a rare instance in cricket where the fielding team had to field with just 10 players.

 Here’s the video of the incident 

With this incident going viral on social media, some Twitter users had their say on the incident. Some called it a ‘never seen that before’ incident while some remembered another such incident when Graeme Swann did the same in an ODI against Australia.

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