Shaun Pollock's Dream Debut: Four Wickets in Four Balls

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On April 26, 1996, Shaun Pollock, the South African fast bowler snared four wickets in consecutive deliveries on his Benson & Hedges Cup debut.

Shaun Pollock the most experienced bowler made a phenomenal start to his career with the County Club Warwickshire.

There were high hopes from the 23-year-old fast bowler, a lot of which had come from his South African teammate Allan Donald, the spearhead of the County till the previous season, then playing in the Lancashire League.

In 1996 he had a spell with Warwickshire cut short because of an ankle injury and missed the tour to India at the end of that year. But he soon returned to resume his new-ball partnership with Allan Donald and this pairing was the springboard of much of South Africa's success during the latter half of the 1990s.

Indeed, it is possible to argue that the emergence of Pollock inspired Donald to greater heights as the latter found himself with a partner who both complemented and challenged him.

Perhaps the straightest bowler in world cricket, Pollock is able to move the ball both ways at a lively pace. He also possesses stamina and courage, as proved in Adelaide in 1998 when he toiled on hour after hour in the blazing heat to take 7 for 87 in 41 overs on a perfect batting pitch.

If there is a criticism of Pollock, it is that he has underperformed with the bat, but most Test teams would be perfectly happy to have him in their side if he never scored a run.

Pollock was thrust into the captaincy in April 2000 when Hansie Cronje was drummed out of the game, and he faced the biggest challenge of his career - to lift a shocked and demoralized South African side.

However, after a solid start to his captaincy, he lost some credibility after a 3-0 drubbing in Australia in 2001-02 and was later blamed for South Africa's disastrous World Cup in which they failed to qualify for the Super Sixes. As a result, Pollock immediately lost the captaincy and was replaced by Graeme Smith. Though his nagging brilliance around the off stump remains, his pace and ability to take wickets at the top of the order have dipped.

ODI debut

1996 sensational ODI debut bagging Man of the Match for his all-round performance of 66 runs and 4 wickets haul against England. The other prominent players to make his limited-over debut alongside were Kallis and Paul Adams.

Career Best

Shaun Pollock has dismissed the Indian maestro 13 times in international, most in his career. The South African pacer castled Tendulkar stumps 3 times in joint highest with Abdul Razzaq, Donald, and Kulasekera.

Later he became the first South African to enter the 400 test wickets club.

Donald-Pollock Combo

Pollock whose initial days and best-ever combo was with white lightening Alan Donald. The duo played in 147 international matches together bagging 714 wickets at a strike rate of 43.2. The other most famous partner in crimes was Makhaya Ntini and Kallis with whom he played more than 350 matches.

Four in four, Warwickshire debut against Leicestershire.

Shaun Pollock made his debut for Warwickshire in the Benson and Hedges Cup, in 1996 at Edgbaston. Warwickshire skipper Dermot Reeve won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Pollock started the proceedings with a maiden over, in the fifth ball of his second he had first blood when Vincent Wells was caught off a short ball. The seventh over and Polly fourth turned out to be historic, but not before Gregor MacMillan wrongly gave out off the elbow caught by keeper Reeve.

James Whitaker was bowled of income delivery, next ball Robinson, bat-pad, and hattrick for Shaun Pollock. Maddy was caught in the third slip as Leicestershire was reduced to 9 for 5.

He bowled straight 10 overs to end with the match figures of 6/21.

The achievement that will be remembered forever.

Notably, Pollock became only the second bowler in the history of this format to take four wickets in four consecutive deliveries, following Alan Ward of Derbyshire, who achieved the feat against Sussex in 1970.

Subsequently, several other cricketers have joined the exclusive list of players who have achieved the remarkable feat of taking four wickets in four consecutive balls in List A cricket. Among them are Vasbert Drakes, Lasith Malinga (in an ODI), Graham Napier, Shrikant Mundhe, and Mashrafe Mortaza.