Pollard, Parthiv to play their 100th IPL game

Pollard would have reached this milestone earlier, had he not missed the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) because of food poisoning. Pollard has featured in 59 MI wins.

Kieron Pollard, with his spectacular big hitting, catching and fielding in the deep, has featured in 59 MI wins.

Mumbai Indians’ (MI) Kieron Pollard and Parthiv Patel are set to join the IPL ‘100-match club’ when they play Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) here on Thursday. While Pollard has been with MI since IPL (when he was bought at well over $1 million), Parthiv has been a part of six franchises.

Pollard would have reached this milestone earlier, had he not missed the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) because of food poisoning. Pollard has missed 20 matches for MI.

Before the tournament began, a knee injury forced Pollard to take a long break. The injury he sustained while playing for Cape Cobras in the South African Ram Slam T20 in November 2015, made him miss the Big Bash League for Adelaide Strikers in Australia and most importantly, the ICC World Twenty20 in India.

After missing the match at Hyderabad, Pollard dug in his heels to make an unbeaten 39 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

Pollard, with his spectacular big hitting, catching and fielding in the deep, has featured in 59 MI wins and is deemed a permanent fixture in the team.

Pollard is set to join Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh and Ambati Rayudu as those who have played 100 IPL matches for a single franchise.

Kohli has played 128 matches for RCB (62 wins), Dhoni 129 matches for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) (78 wins), Raina 132 matches for CSK (79 wins), Harbhajan Singh 118 matches for MI (67 wins) and Rayudu 103 matches for MI (62 wins).

Rising Pune Supergiants’ off-spinner R. Ashwin (102 matches), who was also with CSK, has completed 100 matches in this edition as have leg-spinner Delhi Daredevils’ Amit Mishra (102), Gujarat Lions’ Praveen Kumar (102) and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Shikhar Dhawan (101).

While Dwayne Bravo (96), Irfan Pathan (99) and Yuvraj Singh (98) are also closing in on the mark, KKR coach Jacques Kallis’s IPL career halted at 99 and Subramaniam Badrinath’s CSK count stands at 95.

The 100-match club (as on April 25): Suresh Raina 137, Rohit Sharma 135, M.S. Dhoni 134, Virat Kohli 128, Dinesh Karthik 127, Robin Uthappa 125, Yusuf Pathan 124, Gautam Gambhir 122, Harbhajan Singh 118, Piyush Chawla 116, Ravindra Jadeja 115, A.B. de Villiers 109, Virender Sehwag 104, Ambati Rayudu 103, Praveen Kumar 102, Amit Mishra 102, Ravichandran Ashwin 102, Shikhar Dhawan 101 and Vinay Kumar 100.