Douglas Erwin Bollinger is a professional Australian cricketer who currently plays first-class cricket for the New South Wales Blues and international cricket for Australia. He is a left-handed batsman and a left-arm fast bowler. He also plays for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
One of the new breed of Australian fast bowlers, Bollinger is knocking on the door in all forms of the game and will be hoping to push his claims for both Test and one-day selection this summer. Came of age in the November one-day series in India, when he claimed nine wickets in four games, including a career-best 5/35. A sharp left-armer with the priceless ability to swing the ball back into the right-hander, Bollinger has been terrorising Sheffield Shield batting line-ups for years. With the likes of Stuart Clark and Brett Lee nearing the end of their fine careers, Bollinger is a key player in the future of Australian cricket.
Bollinger has been signed up by Chennai Super Kings for the 2010 Indian Premier League. He has been included in the roster after the Super Kings' all-rounder Jacob Oram confirmed his unavailability for the season due to injury. Bollinger arrived for the second half of the tournament after the end of the tour of New Zealand. Bollinger is the fourth Australian to play for the Super Kings after Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and George Bailey. In his IPL debut, he helped Chennai defend a total of 246 against Rajasthan by taking a catch off Yusuf Pathan which was going for a six; he backpedalled and caught the ball and had to throw it up in the air before falling over the rope and then rebalancing himself to complete the catch. This earned him an award for the best catch of the match. He delivered a spell of 2/15 from four overs dismissing Shane Watson who got 60 off just 25 balls in a match which the other Chennai bowlers averaged 13 runs per over in contrast to his 3.75. Rajasthan ended their innings at 223.
In the semifinal against the Deccan Chargers, Bollinger bowled an excellent spell of 4/13 to help Chennai crush the defending champions while defending a low total.This helped them in reaching the final and they eventually won the third edition of the tournament by defeating the Mumbai Indians in the final. Bollinger was greatly responsible for bringing the turnaround in the team's fortunes. Before his arrival they had won only three of their eight games.