Cricket: For Pollock, test win first, personal milestone second

By RICHARD BOOCK

For Shaun Pollock, happiness is a series-saving win at the Basin Reserve and instant membership to another of world cricket's most famous statistical categories.

The veteran South African paceman was looking on the bright side yesterday as he surveyed the wreckage from the tour so far, the result of a 5-1 pounding in the one-dayers and a desperate 1-0 deficit in the test series.

Having already boosted his tally of wickets to 334 during the second test at Eden Park, Pollock requires just 102 more runs to reach the 3000 mark. the batting milestone Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan reached at Auckland.

The achievement would not only push Pollock into the same club that Cairns entered at the weekend, it would leave him in the company of the four greatest bowling all-rounders in the game, each of whom has taken more than 300 wickets and scored over 3000 runs.

New Zealand's Richard Hadlee is one of the legendary members with 431 test wickets and 3124 runs, with England's Ian Botham, India's Kapil Dev and Pakistan's Imran Khan the others to have achieved the double.

Pollock, who was yesterday exhorting his team-mates to steel themselves for a final thrust, said it was up to every individual in the team to search for a way to improve, and to take responsibility for the present tour position.

"It is a motivation," he said of the double. "It's in the back of your mind and you always want to get the milestone.

"Individually, we've all got to look at what we can do to help. If each player raises their performance by a couple of per cent, that will be a great boost to our overall chances."

Far from being despondent and looking forward to the end of the tour, Pollock said there were goals for every player in the upcoming showdown, and that he would personally love to bring up his 3000th run, and farewell team-mate Gary Kirsten on a high.

Kirsten, the first South African to play 100 tests, will retire his test shirt at the end of the tour, having already withdrawn from the one-day side after last year's World Cup.

"It's one last push for us and I think the guys are motivated to come out and do it," Pollock said.

"It's Gary Kirsten's last test match, and we don't need much more motivation than that, to be honest.

"A guy who has been around as long as he has ... we want to send him off on a good note."

News that the pitch for the test, starting tomorrow, is expected to be flat and not dissimilar to the one used for the Boxing Day test against Pakistan, did not surprise Pollock, but neither did it leave him teetering on the edge of desperation.

He said it was very important to resist the temptation to search too hard for instant success, and warned that victory would be achieved on a session-by-session basis, rather than by a reckless assault on the first morning.

"We've got to be patient it's a five-day test. Sometimes in these situations you want to make it happen and try to win the test match in the first session, but it doesn't work like that.

"You've got to win the last session. If you do that, you'll win the game."

He was interested in what approach New Zealand would take into the game, given they don't need to win but only need to avoid losing in order to capture their first series against South Africa.

"Whatever happens, we're confident that if they're too careless, we can capitalise, and if they're too cautious we can take advantage of that, too."