Having bagged 8 wins in 9 games, Hardik Pandya led Gujarat Titans took on Mayank Agarwal‘s Punjab Kings on Tuesday evening at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai with the aim to become the first team in the IPL 2022 to seal a playoff berth.
Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first. But there was a hilarious banter between Hardik and PBKS captain Agarwal.
As Pandya spun the coin up in the air, Agarwal, who has already lost 8 out of 9 tosses so far, called tails. However, once again to Agarwal’s misfortunes, the coin came up heads and he lost it.
To this Pandya cheered his toss victory animatedly with a little scream in face of the PBKS captain who had a sheepish smile and both laughed it off. Agarwal lost his 9th toss out of 10 this season and both would have had a laughter-filled chat about it prior to the toss.
You can watch the video here:
#GujaratTitans have won the toss and they will bat first against #PBKS.
Live – https://t.co/LcfJL3lO5i #GTvPBKS #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/Dy1oulrRdE
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 3, 2022
Hardik Pandya gets out for just 1; gets a send-off from Rishi Dhawan
Hardik may have won the toss, but he couldn’t do damage to PBKS bowlers with the bat as Rishi Dhawan dismissed him for just 1 run off 7 balls.
Having scored just 1 run off his first 6 deliveries, Pandya wanted to get going but failed to middle his poke to a delivery from Rishi that was outside off stump and pitched on a perfect length to not have the batter either committing forward or going on the back foot.
The ball seamed away off the pitch slightly- just so slightly to induce a false shot from Hardik who was looking to nudge it away on the offside but managed an outside edge which wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma pouched easily. It was a big wicket for Punjab Kings as Pandya has been in good touch with the bat this season – he’s Gujarat’s leading scorer so far – and could have played a lengthy knock had he got settled in.
Rishi Dhawan, who was wearing his face shield, and PBKS skipper along with their teammates were elated to see the back of the Gujarat skipper. On his way to a screaming celebration, Rishi celebrated a bit animatedly, giving away a couple of flying kisses Hardik Pandya’s way, followed by some air fists.
— Addicric (@addicric) May 3, 2022
