Veteran Indian batter Dinesh Karthik played just 2 balls on Friday night, during India’s 2nd T20I match against Australia, and with those two deliveries, he justified his spot in the Indian cricket team. Dinesh Karthik smashed 10 runs off those two deliveries. These were the first 2 balls of the last over of the rain-curtailed game in Nagpur, where 9 runs were needed off the last 6 balls.
DK smashed Daniel Sams for a six and then finished the game with a boundary. Indian captain Rohit Sharma and DK were seen celebrating the win with a hug.
After the match, Dinesh Karthik was all praises for the Nagpur fans, who had come in numbers to support the team. He said that he saw this much crowd and fanfare for the first time after the outbreak of COVID-19 in India. He also expressed that the fact that the fans stayed despite the rain, motivated the Indian side to do well. He said:
“We were very, very keen to play for only one reason. From the time we started from the hotel, right up to the ground, there was crowd throughout, we took more time than we actually should take to reach the ground. The amount of people that were standing in the ground, we knew that it was a special occasion for us. After Covid, there have not been many situations where people have come and just been through the whole drive from the hotel to the ground,”
Furthermore, the 37-year-old added both teams showed a lot of courage to play in those difficult conditions which were not to perfect to play the game. He said: “We wanted to make sure we played the game. Obviously at the start we got the feeling that it might be hard but I think both teams were courageous and kind to play the game. We both teams played for city of Nagpur. Yes, it helped us get 1-1 in the series but just to play the game for the people of Nagpur was very special,”
Watch the video:
.@DineshKarthik has a special message for the fans in Nagpur following #TeamaIndia‘s win in the 2⃣nd #INDvAUS T20I. ☺️ 👏 pic.twitter.com/NFzmubLQwa
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 23, 2022
