Superstar cricketer Hardik Pandya once again asserted his status as India’s best T20 all-rounder with his match-winning all-round performance on Sunday against arch-rivals Pakistan, in Dubai.
Pandya starred with both ball and bat: first, his three-wicket haul helped India restricted Pakistan to 147; when his turn came with the bat, Pandya emerged as India’s biggest hope, clattering 33 runs in 17 balls on a tacky surface, finishing the chase with a sixer with only 2 balls left at the end.
Mohammad Amir’s special tweet for Hardik Pandya
The morning after winning the match for India, Hardik Pandya put up a tweet with caption: “The comeback is greater than the setback”. In this post, Pandya added the image of him being stretchered out during an Asia Cup 2018 match, also against Pakistan and also in Dubai.
He had suffered a back injury then which took months out of his career and also rendered him unable to bowl even after his return.
The second picture in his post was of his latest powerful show – against Pakistan in Dubai – him celebrating with his bat raised around the Pakistani fielders after having taken India home.
See the post here:
The comeback is greater than the setback
pic.twitter.com/KlnD4GZ4ZO
— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) August 29, 2022
Retweeting this post from Hardik Pandya, former Pakistani pacer Mohammad Amir hailed the Indian all-rounder, writing: “Well played brother [clapping hands emoji].”
Here, check out Mohammad Amir’s tweet:
Well played brother
— Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) August 29, 2022
Hardik Pandya shared 52(29) partnership with Ravindra Jadeja
Pandya came into bat with India reeling at 89/4 in the 15th over and started to rebuild with Ravindra Jadeja.
The equation was brought down to 19 runs needed from 10 balls with Pandya on 15 off 11. Then came what seemed a decisive three blows to Haris Rauf – four over mid-on, and two fours through cow corner.
Pakistani spinner Mohammad Nawaz, however, cleaned up Jadeja on the first ball of the last over. With 6 runs needed off the last 3 balls, Pandya smashed Nawaz above long-on to bring the game home for India. In his innings, the right-hander cracked 4 fours and a six.
Earlier, he’d returned with brilliant bowling figures of 3/25 in his 4 overs – he broke the back of Pakistan’s batting innings with his three-wicket haul, which comprised the dismissals of the well-set opener Mohammad Rizwan, the dangerous-looking Iftikhar Ahmed, and left-handed batsman Khushdil Shah.
While bagging the Player of the Match award, Hardik Pandya explained that his mantra while chasing is to just keep a calm head and assess the situation. Beaming in confidence, Pandya was even ready to chase down 15 runs in the last over.
“In bowling, it’s important to assess the situations and use your weapons. For me, bowling short and the hard lengths have been my strengths. It’s about using them well and asking the right questions to make the batters commit a mistake. In a chase like this, you always plan over-by-over. I always knew that there is one young bowler and also one left-arm spinner. We only needed 7 off the last over but even if we needed 15, I’d have fancied myself. I know the bowler is under more pressure than me in the 20th over. I try to keep things simple,” Hardik Pandya said.
