Fans launched a scathing attack on Hardik Pandya after the India captain decided to bowl four overs in the second T20I against New Zealand in Lucknow on Sunday.
Hardik Pandya's move to persist with his fast bowling baffled several Team India supporters as the pitch at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow was a slow-turner and even part-time spinners were gripping the ball by a fair deal.
Against this backdrop, Hardik Pandya's tactic of handing Yuzvendra Chahal the ball for only two overs, especially when the latter had given the Men in Blue their first breakthrough with the wicket of Finn Allen in the fourth over, wasn’t appreciated. Moreover, Yuzvendra Chahal was the most economical bowler in the clash, going for only four runs in his two overs.
Despite such outstanding figures, Hardik Pandya chose to complete his four overs and didn't bring Yuzvendra Chahal back for a second spell.
Indian cricket team's admirers even criticized Hardik Pandya for introducing Arshdeep Singh in the 18th over of the New Zealand innings.
https://twitter.com/sudshud/status/1619707818873081859
A bowler is returning from an injury, not having good matches .
Needs confidence.What do you do ??
Play him , not give him a single over in 15 overs of a T20I match and yourself bowl 3 overs 👏👏👏
Hardik Pandya is the most selfish captain I've ever seen .
— Kaygee18 (@Kaygee1803) January 29, 2023
Hardik Pandya is what I would be as a captain. Apni batting bowling poori karunga, fir aage dekhenge.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) January 29, 2023
Captain Hardik Pandya bowled 4 complete overs on a turning track😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ljWyqs8Tid
— 🇦🇪 (@blitzkrieg71_) January 29, 2023
Hardik Pandya is not a good captain. He thinks he is better and superior than every other players on the pitch. He also considers himself as better swing bowler than the specialist bowlers. What a selfish player he is.
— Atrovoid (@atrovoid) January 29, 2023
The match in Uttar Pradesh turned out to be a low-scoring thriller. Batting first New Zealand put 100 runs on the board, with every Indian bowler barring Shivam Mavi picking up at least one wicket.
In reply, India managed to finish off the game on the penultimate delivery with Suryakumar Yadav hitting the winning boundary.
After the match, Hardik Pandya panned the pitch, calling it a “shocker of a wicket”.
He added that while there was a tense atmosphere outside, he and his players were confident about coming out on top in the match.
“I always believed we will finish the game,” Hardik Pandya said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “It went quite deep, but that is how it is. These kind of games, it is important to not panic. Rather than taking risks, we rotated the strike. having said that, this is a shocker of a pitch. We need to make sure we have better pitches. Even 120 would have been a winning total here. We kept to our plans, we made sure they will not rotate the strike, and the wickets kept falling. Dew didn't play much of a role because if you see they were able to spin the ball more than us. It was a shocker of a wicket. The ball was flying for even the fast bowlers.”
Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav whose unbeaten 26 off 31 balls ended deciding the result of the game claimed that the pitch was extremely tough to bat on. But once Washington Sundar was run-out after a horrible mix-up with him, he decided to stick around till the end.
“A different version of SKY today,” Suryakumar Yadav said. “Adapting to the situation was very important. After losing Washy, I had to make sure I batted till the end. It was my mistake, I didn't see where the ball went. Of course it was a challenging wicket, but you have to be able to adapt. We just needed one hit in the end, and it was very important to calm ourselves down. Before I got the winning runs, Hardik came up to me and told me you will hit the winning runs this ball. That gave me a lot of confidence.”
India allrounder Washington Sundar revealed that there were tense moments in the Indian dug-out before adding that he sacrificed his wicket for Suryakumar Yadav because he was sure if he had been there till the end, he would win the game for the hosts.
“All of us were on our toes,” Washington Sundar noted. “I am sure everyone watching would have been on their toes. This has been very very exciting. Two-three games like this out of every 10-11 games would be amazing. It was very important for Surya to stay till the end that's why I sacrificed my wicket.”
New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner argued that it was quite challenging to score runs in Lucknow and at the start of the match his team wasn't aware of what could have been a good target to set at the Ekana Cricket Stadium.
“It was a great game of cricket. We bowled well, got really close, another 10-15 runs would have helped. With the bounce out there, it looked quite challenging. When you are batting, you are not too sure what a good score. We were looking at 140-160 when 120 would have been a good score,” Mitchell Santner summed up.
With their triumph in UP, the Men in Blue leveled the series at 1-1 after the Kiwis beat them in the first game in Ranchi on Friday.
The outcome of the series will now be decided at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday where India will look to win a third consecutive T20I series under the leadership of Hardik Pandya.
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