Sunday, 26 April 2020 marks exactly 24 years since former Proteas seamer Shaun Pollock took four wickets with successive deliveries on debut for Warwickshire in English county cricket.

Pollock removed openers Leicestershire quartet Gregor MacMillan, James Whitaker, Phil Robinson and Darren Maddy in late April 1996’s Benson & Hedges Cup fixture at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

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Fellow Proteas fast bowler Allan Donald, who also played for Warwickshire, was watching on the boundary’s edge.

‘I got four wickets in four balls on my debut for Warwickshire, which was very important for me because I came to the county the year after Brian Lara had set the world alight. In those days there was only one overseas player, so you walk in to the dressing room and you want to do a job and prove to the other boys that you can play well,’ Pollock told Wisden.

‘You need to make a good start and you’re keen to make a good impression, so to get four in four on debut was a pretty good introduction.’

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Pollock finished with match-winning figures of 6-21 – and never bettered this haul in 12 more years of professional List A cricket before retiring in 2008.

Pollock was one of the four victims when Sri Lankan pace ace Lasith Malinga repeated the feat – but at ODI level – in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

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