Shaun Pollock Profile by CricketArchive

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Player:

SM Pollock

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DateLine: 20th February 2007

 

His father is Peter Pollock, his uncle is Graeme Pollock and with this sort of pedigree it was always on the cards that Shaun Pollock would be a fine international cricketer. But even the most optimistic supporter would not have bargained for the outstanding record that he has run up in both Tests and ODIs. He is probably just a few matches away from becoming only the second player in Test history – after India’s Kapil Dev – to notch up the double of 4000 runs and 400 wickets. He takes his place among South Africa’s greatest all-rounders but the enduring image of Pollock will always be his nagging bowling – that stump to stump line, the bowling in the corridor of uncertainty just outside the off stump that leaves the best of batsmen in considerable doubt. Perhaps the straightest contemporary bowler Pollock’s strike rate is phenomenal for a bowler of his pace. Over the last couple of years he has lost a yard of two in pace but none of his accuracy and he has always remained the ultimate ``you miss I hit’’ bowler as even the most technically equipped batsmen have discovered. As a batsman Pollock remains a fluent striker of the ball and loves to hit the ball high and hard particularly in the slog overs and boasts of a strike rate of almost 86 in ODIs. Naturally enough he remains one of the hardest bowlers to score off in limited overs cricket. Thrust into the captaincy after Hansie Cronje was sacked following the match fixing controversy in 2000 Pollock made an impressive start but a 3-0 whitewash in Australia in 2001-02 blunted his reputation and he was removed from the top post after South Africa’s unexpected early exit from the 2003 World Cup.