With India needing only 5 more runs against Australia, and KL Rahul on strike on 91 runs, he had calculated the only possible way for him to get to a century was to hit a four and then hit a six. However, he timed his lofted cover drive off a full ball from Pat Cummins just a bit too well and it went for a six.
Rahul was down on his haunches watching the ball sail over for a six, and not a four as he’d wished for, before giving a smile, finishing his innings, and India’s successful run-chase, on 97*.
However, fans pointed out that had Hardik Pandya not hit a six to Josh Hazlewood two overs ago, KL Rahul would have gotten a better chance to reach his century, and perhaps could have made this special innings even more memorable with a hundred.
Fans slammed and trolled Hardik Pandya as being “selfish” and called him names like “snake”. It didn’t take long before fans also recalled how similarly just a few months ago, Hardik Pandya had hit a six to deny Tilak Varma a chance to reach his maiden T20I fifty in the West Indies in a T20I.
Netizens on Twitter trolled Hardik Pandya for being “selfish” in denying KL Rahul his century vs Australia:
Talking about Rahul’s knock, he came in to bat with the score 2/3 in 2 overs with the trio of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer having gotten out for ducks. Virat Kohli and Rahul formed a 165-run partnership which put India in a winning position. Kohli scored 85 runs while Rahul scored 97*.
Rahul revealed that Kohli told him to bat like they do in a Test match as the pitch was helping the bowlers and there wasn’t any real pressure of the required run-rate. He reckoned they needed to play out the new ball first as the Aussie pacers were bowling well.
“Virat said there’s big help in the wicket, and [we] just have to play proper shots and play like it’s Test cricket for some time and see where it goes,” he said. “That was mostly the plan, and happy that we could do the job for the team.”
