Caribbean Premier League 2017: Kieron Pollard slammed for apparent deliberate no-ball 

What’s the story?

Kieron Pollard, in the past, got himself involved into numerous controversies on the cricket field. This time around, it was no different as he was accused of yet another dispute on the field of play.

During Barbados Tridents’ clash against the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, the Tridents skipper apparently bowled a deliberate no-ball in order to deny Evin Lewis his fourth ton in T20 cricket.

During the presentation ceremony, Lewis expressed his disappointment for not being able to accomplish his ton. "It hurts (missing out on the hundred), but hitting 97 not out off 33 balls? I'll take that any day,"- the left handed batsman said.

The Patriots’ opener also sounded confident about taking forward his good form into the knock-out stages of the tournament. "I've been hitting the ball long and hard in the nets. Confident now and looking forward to the playoffs."- he added.

In case you didn’t know

The league stage of the Caribbean Premier League came to a close yesterday, after a month of riveting encounters from the six participating sides.

Trinbago Knight Riders top the table with eight wins from ten games. The St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots, Jamaica Tallawahs and the Guyana Amazon Warriors have also qualified for the playoffs

The heart of the matter

In their must-win encounter, Barbados Tridents huffed and puffed to a total of 128 runs for the loss of nine wickets. Carlos Brathwaite picked up four wickets for 15 runs to take the sting out of the Tridents’ batting lineup.

The Patriots’ batsman made a mockery of the target and chased it down in seven overs without losing a wicket. At the start of the eight over, while the Patriots needed one run, Lewis needed three runs to get to his hundred.

However, Pollard overstepped the bowling crease, which made sure that Lewis didn't get to his hundred.

Parallels from history

This isn’t the first time a bowler took the route of bowling a no-ball to stop a batsman from reaching a milestone.

In 2010, during a One Day International game between India and Sri Lanka, Suraj Randiv bowled a no-ball and as a result, Virender Sehwag was stranded on a score of 99 runs.

Author’s Take

At times, the laws and spirit of the game don’t tend to go hand in hand. What Pollard did was well within the laws, but it didn’t pertain to the spirit of the game.

Strategising is fine - but it should relate to winning or losing a game rather than stopping others from reaching their personal milestones. At the end of the day, cricket is a gentleman’s game.