Five times batting captains took bowling matters into their hands
Prior to his four-wicket performance in Super League action, Pooran had bowled just nine deliveries across List A and First Class cricket, taking just the one wicket. Internationally, Pooran was thrown the ball in a One Day International last year against Australia, bowling three balls in a match then-captain Kieron Pollard had effectively conceded.
Now taking the captaincy, Pooran turned heads when he brought himself onto bowl, becoming the third member of a spin trio alongside Hayden Walsh Jr and Akeal Hosein.
Fancying himself against left-hand pair of Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq, Pooran's turn and bounce led to a breakthrough, and ultimately final figures of 4/48.
While the former Indian skipper may have taken 100 ODI wickets, Ganguly only bowled 760 overs across 311 One Day Internationals with his more than useful medium pace.
At 91/2, Zimbabwe had set themselves a decent platform in Kanpur, with Andy Flower and Stuart Carlisle setting a platform for the tourists.
Bowling his full allotment for first time in 25 ODIs, and the only Indian bowler to do so on this particular day, Ganguly put the side on his back, dismissing the set pair either side of Grant Flower on a slow and low track.
From their strong start, Zimbabwe crumbled to 141/6 after Ganguly claimed his fourth scalp, opposite number Heath Streak for just three.
The tourists' death-over plans were curtailed, and Ganguly picked up his fifth when Travis Friend was adjudged lbw for six.
India would go on to win by nine wickets, with Ganguly's 71* (68) confirming Player of the Match honours.
It wasn’t often Gooch bowled his full quota, though a ten-over stint in the 1989 MRF World Series earned him Player of the Match honours in a win over Pakistan in Cuttack.
The victims were no tail-enders either, with his seamers too good for Javed Miandad (14), Saleem Yousuf (6) and Wasim Akram first ball, trapped lbw.
Gooch finished with 3/19 with four maidens, restricting Pakistan to 148, which was then chased down inside 44 overs.
Despite the defeat, Pakistan would exact revenge in the latter stages of the tournament, beating the English in Nagpur before claiming the tournament final over the West Indies in Kolkata.
Gatting took three of his ten ODI wickets in one outing, finishing with 3/59 (9) in a luckless day for England at the MCG in 1987.
As the five previous bowlers toiled to claim just two wickets between them, a fed up Gatting decided to hand his own cap to the umpire, catching Greg Ritchie short of his ground with a Bruce French stumping, and dismissing Dirk Wellham soon after.
Gatting then went on to deny Dean Jones a century, though his efforts proved futile as Australia cantered to an easy victory.
The Afghan’s spell of 3/35 from six overs in the sixth-bowler spot arguably turned the match and the two-match series in Amstelveen, with the Blue Tigers hitting back after the first match defeat.
The Dutch recovered from 31/3, though Mangal’s off-spin broke a 113-run partnership between Eric Szwarczynski and Ryan ten Doeschate, and the wicket of Bas Zuiderent two balls later swung momentum in his team’s direction.
The two wickets forced ten Doeschate to hold back in the final overs, and Mangal’s third wicket, this time of Daan van Bunge, stifled a late charge.
Afghanistan would go on to win the match by six wickets, chasing down 232. Mangal would chime in with 20 with the bat, with teammate Mohammad Shahzad making a century.
Pooran certainly lived up to his self-acknowledged "instinctive" style of captaincy in the third Super League ODI against Pakistan.
With both Hosein and Walsh Jr turning the ball into the left-handed opening pair, Pooran brought himself on for the 13th over, replacing Romario Shepherd.
Pooran struggled to find his length early, dragging down his first two deliveries, though posed enough questions to stifle the threat of the set batters.
In his third over, Pooran struck. Sneaking under Fakhar's bat on the sweep, the skipper's delivery dipped and crashed into the off-stump, forcing the hosts to rethink their approach.
As Walsh Jr brought Babar Azam undone at the other end, Pooran doubled his tally with the wicket of Imam, drawing the opener into a reckless top edge to Shai Hope. Mohammad Haris was all at see for Pooran's third, failing to adjust to the opposing skipper's change of pace, picking out Hosein at backward point with a top edge of his own.
Pooran completed his four-wicket set in his seventh over firing a quicker one from around the wicket to Mohammad Rizwan (11), whose bottom edge was caught by Shai Hope.
In spite of the captain's work, Pakistan went on to post 269, a bridge too far for the chasing tourists who fell 53 runs short via the DLS method.