In a dramatic turn of events, Dananjaya’s memorable day turned on its head as the Windies skipper feasted on him, shortly after he had sent back Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran off successive deliveries to claim a hat-trick.

Chasing down 132 to win, West Indies found themselves going from 52-0 to 52-3 after a blistering start by Lewis. If Sri Lanka felt they had clawed back into the game with Dananjaya’s hat-trick, that hope was soon taken away.

In the spinner’s next over, Pollard, who had faced four balls for two runs until then, smashed six straight sixes to become the third player in international cricket to achieve the feat after Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh.

“Only two guys were out, so I just come out and back myself to clear the boundaries rather than just prod and prod and prod. It was something the team needed. In that brief time (before the sixth delivery) a couple things went through my head; do I survive the rest of the over because I’ve already gotten 30 or do I just continue. I know I had the bowler on the back foot and he went around the wicket, it would have been difficult for him to bowl the ball anywhere in front of me,” Pollard said after the game.

“I just said, ‘You know what Polly, take your chances’. You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t and that’s the way I’ve played my cricket throughout, especially with spinners bowling. It came off tonight. It was a bizarre game.”

Watch the ridiculous over here:

Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match awards, player interviews, analysis and much more.