Watch: Allan Donald’s replacement Shaun Pollock takes four wickets in four balls on debut
Watch: At Edgbaston in 1996, Shaun Pollock became the second bowler to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in a List A match.
Between 1987 and 2000, Allan Donald had an outstanding career for Warwickshire. He announced a sabbatical season in 1996, opting to play for Rishton in the Lancashire League while working as bowling and physical fitness coach for Warwickshire.
To spearhead their attack, they roped in Donald’s compatriot Pollock – then 23 and in the first year of his international career.
Pollock made his Benson & Hedges Cup debut against Leicestershire. Dermot Reeve put Leicestershire in, and gave Pollock first over ahead of Dougie Brown.
In his second over, Pollock bowled a bouncer, Vince Wells mistimed his hook, and was caught at extra cover. Ben Smith and Greg Macmillan struggled, and after six overs, the score stood at 9-1.
Pollock struck with the second ball of his fourth over – though replays revealed that the ball had probably brushed Macmillan’s elbow en route to Reeve at first slip.
James Whitaker, recently appointed captain of Leicestershire, misread the next ball, which came into him and hit the stumps off his pad. Pollock held the length back next, and Peter Robinson was caught at short leg. It gave Pollock a hat-trick, but he was not done yet.
With the next ball, he had Darren Maddy caught at third slip. At this stage, Leicestershire were 9-5, and Pollock had figures of 3.5-2-1-5. He also became the second bowler to take four wickets in four balls in the format, after Alan Ward of Derbyshire against Sussex in 1970.
Since then, Vasbert Drakes, Lasith Malinga (in an ODI), Graham Napier, Shrikant Mundhe, and Mashrafe Mortaza have also achieved this in List A cricket.
Paul Nixon faced the second wicketless ball of the over, though Pollock had him caught at slip as well. He bowled unchanged to finish with 10-5-21-6. Leicestershire made 182-9 and lost comfortably.
Years later, Pollock would rate the performance among the top ten in his career.
Watch Shaun Pollock take four wickets in four balls:
