Prior to his four-wicket haul in Super League action, Pooran had bowled just nine deliveries, taking just one wicket in List A and first-class cricket. At the international level, Pooran bowled in the One Day International against Australia last year, bowling three balls in a match, effectively conceded by then-captain Kieron Pollard.
Now taking the captaincy, Pooran brought himself to the bowling end by becoming the third member of the spin trio along with Hayden Walsh Jr. and Akil Hossein.
Confident himself against the left-handed pair of Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq, achieved a breakthrough, and eventually gave his best bowling performance with 4/48. Let’s take a look at some other captains who have successfully tried their hand at bowling.
Sourav Ganguly – 5/34 (10) vs Zimbabwe, Kanpur, 2000
The former Indian captain have taken 100 ODI wickets, Ganguly bowled only 760 overs in 311 One Day Internationals with a useful medium pacer action. On 91/2, Zimbabwe had set themselves a good stage in Kanpur, with Andy Flower and Stuart Carlisle setting a stage for tourists.
Throwing his full overs for the first time in 25 ODIs, he showed the pair the way to the pavilion. Even after a strong start, Zimbabwe fell to 141/6. The tourists’ death-over plans were called off, and Ganguly took his fifth wicket when Travis Friend was declared lbw for six. India would win by nine wickets, also awarded Player of the Match with Ganguly’s 71* (68).
Graham Gooch – 3/19 (10) v Pakistan, Cuttack, 1989
Often Gooch played the role of a part-time bowler. However, a ten-over stint in the 1989 MRF World Series earned him the player of the match award in a bowling victory over Pakistan in Cuttack.
Javed Miandad (14), Salim Yusuf (6) and Wasim Akram were lbw off the first ball by their fast bowlers. Gooch finished on 3/19 with four maidens, restricting Pakistan to 148, which was then chased down within 44 overs.
Despite the defeat, Pakistan exact revenge in the later stages of the tournament. Defeats England in Nagpur before claiming the final of the tournament against West Indies in Kolkata.
Mike Gatting – 3/59 (9) vs Australia, Melbourne, 1987
Mike Gatting took a total of 10 wickets in his ODI career and three of them in a match. A lucky day for England at the MCG in 1987 finished with 3/59 (9).
As the five main bowlers had just two wickets between them, Gatting, fed up with the umpire, decided to hand over his own cap to the umpire, kick Greg Ritchie off his ground with a Bruce French stumping, and soon Dirk. Welham is dismissed. Gatting then denied Dean Jones a century, though his efforts proved futile as Australia won the match easily.
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Navroz Mangal – 3/35 (6) v Netherlands, Amstelveen, 2009
Navroz’s spell of 3/35 in six overs in place of the sixth bowler arguably turned the match and the two-match series into Amstelveen, with the Blue Tigers making a comeback after losing the first match.
The Dutch had recovered from 31/3, although Mars’ off-spin broke the 113-run partnership between Erik Szwarczynski and Ryan ten Doeschate, and the wicket of Bas Zuiderent two balls later picked up momentum in his team’s direction. .
After two wickets, Das Deutschet, under pressure, made a plan to score runs in the last over. But waiting for this moment, Mangal took the wicket of ten Deutschet.
Chasing 232 runs, Afghanistan won the match by six wickets. Mangal scored 20 with the bat, teammate Mohammad Shahzad scored a century.
Nicholas Pooran – 4/48 (10) vs Pakistan, Multan, 2022
Pooran certainly lived up to his self-admitted “spontaneous” style of captaincy in the third Super League ODI against Pakistan. Both Hossein and Walsh Jr. turned the ball into the opening pair of left-handers, with Pooran bringing himself in for the 13th over in place of Romario Shepherd.
Pooran struggled to find his length early on, dragging his first two deliveries, though the set raised enough questions to defuse the batsmen’s threat. Pooran took the first wicket in his third over. Sneaking under Fakhar’s bat on the sweep, the captain’s delivery goes off and hits the off-stump.
As Walsh Jr. sent Babar Azam to the other end, Nicholas Pooran took the second wicket with the wicket of Imam. Mohammad Haris became Pooran’s third victim. He failed to keep pace with the change in pace of the opposing captain, taking a simple catch to Hossin at backward point.
Nicholas Pooran completed his four-wicket set with the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan (11) in his seventh over. Despite the captain’s work, Pakistan scored 269 runs, which the West Indies team failed to chase.