The Hardik Pandya-led Indian cricket team suffered a 2 wicket defeat at the hands of Rovman Powell-led West Indies National Cricket Team in the second T20I of the five-match series at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday. This was India’s second defeat in the ongoing 5-match T20I series, with West Indies taking a lead of 2-1 in the series.
After winning the toss, Hardik Pandya elected to bat first. Team India batters gave a poor start to the innings as they lost Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav inside the powerplay. The other batters too failed to live up to the expectations of the fans.
Later, while chasing a total of 152 runs, West Indies also got off to a terrible start to their innings as they lost Brandon King and Johnson Charles in the very first over courtesy of Hardik Pandya. Kyle Mayers also departed during the powerplay.
However, Nicholas Pooran held the game tight and batted well from the other end. He was playing the knock cautiously before shifting the gears in the final over of the powerplay. He smashed his IPL teammate Ravi Bishnoi for 18 runs.
Hardik Pandya Blamed The Batters For India’s Defeat In 2nd T20I
Speaking after the game, Hardik Pandya expressed his disappointment over the batting performance of the team. He said:
“If am being honest that was not a pleasing batting performance, we could have batted better. 160+ or 170 would have been a good total. The way he has been batting, becomes very difficult to rotate spinners. 2/2 and the way he batted, took the game quite into their hands.”
Further, Hardik Pandya talked about the current combination of team India, saying that they have to trust their top 7 batters to perform throughout the series and hope that the bowlers lead the side to win. He also praised Tilak Varma for his powerful knock. He said:
“With the current combination we have we will have to trust out top 7 batters to come good and hope the bowlers win you games. We have to find ways to make sure we have the right balance but at the same time batters need to take more responsibility. Left-hander coming at 4 gives us variety. It doesn’t feel like it’s his second international game.”
