Kieron Pollard: West Indies become oldest T20 team..34 year old batsman hit sixes, 37 year old bowler wreaks havoc, West Indies becomes oldest T20 XI in world as Kieron Pollard Dwayne Bravo star

The shortest format of cricket, ie T20 cricket, is believed to be dominated by young players and fitness matters a lot. But the West Indies cricket team has always been a team to change traditions and something similar happened on Thursday night as well. When the host West Indies T20 team came to play the fourth T20 match against South Africa in Grenada, there was a special thing in this team. It was the oldest XI to land in international T20 cricket and the team also won the match by 21 runs.

In the five-match T20 series, West Indies were trailing 1-2 after losing two consecutive matches. If the thrill and hope were to continue in the series, they would have to win the fourth T20 by any means. So one would expect them to field their best smoky players. It happened, but it was the playing-11 of the aged stalwarts. The Windies team that landed on the field became the oldest playing-11 in T20 International cricket (in full member countries). The average age of this team was 32 years 1 month. The oldest player in the team is Chris Gayle, who scored just 5 runs in this match.

These are the West Indies players and their age who took the field in the fourth T20

1. Chris Gayle – 41 years 284 days
2. Lendl Simmons – 36 years 158 days
3. Evin Lewis – 29 years 187 days
4. Shimron Hetmyer – 24 years 188 days
5. Nicholas Pooran – 25 years 273 days
6. Kieron Pollard – 34 years 51 days
7. Andre Russell – 33 years 64 days
8. Fabian Allen – 26 years 56 days
9. Dwayne Bravo – 37 years 268 days
10. Obed McCoy – 24 years 179 days
11. Fidel Edwards – 39 years 146 days

34-year-old batsman’s bat roared, made interesting record

In this match, South Africa after winning the toss invited West Indies to bat first. At one point his team was faltering. 5 wickets had fallen before the hundred runs. But then the captain of the team and veteran 34-year-old batsman Kieron Pollard played an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls. His innings included 5 sixes and 2 fours. Apart from this, in bowling, Pollard also took 1 wicket giving 24 runs in 4 overs. With this, he became the first captain to bat at a strike rate of 200+ in the same T20 International and bowl economical at an economy rate of 6 or less in bowling.

The 37-year-old all-rounder smashed the ball, produced career-best performance

Before the match was over, another oldest player of this oldest team was yet to make a splash. The 37-year-old all-rounder of the Windies team, Dwayne Bravo, showed the world that he still has a lot of potential. Didn’t get a chance to bat but made the best performance of his T20 International career in bowling. Bravo took 4 wickets in 4 overs conceding just 19 runs.

Chasing the target of 168 runs given by the West Indies, the South African team could only manage 146 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. They lost the match by 21 runs and West Indies drew 2-2 in the five-match series. Now the title will be decided in the final match on July 3.