Hardik Pandya has emerged as India’s T20I MVP in the past few months, and the Baroda all-rounder gave another telling, highly match-impacting performance on Sunday, against Pakistan, in Dubai in the Asia Cup 2022 encounter.
Pandya returned with brilliant bowling figures of 3/25 in his 4 overs which went a long way in India restricting Pakistan to under 150.
Hardik Pandya Gave A Brilliant Performance With The Ball
Hardik Pandya broke the back of Pakistan’s batting innings with a three-wicket haul, which included the wickets of the well-set opener Mohammad Rizwan, the dangerous-looking and another well-set batter Iftikhar Ahmed, and left-hander batsman Khushdil Shah.
He took all these wickets with short and short-of-length deliveries – a style which is now become really talked about with Hardik Pandya. For it is the same sort of hard and short length bowling with which he’d delivered a Man of the Match performance in the IPL 2022 where also he’d taken 3 Rajasthan Royals wickets, propelling his side, Gujarat Titans to the title.
Today, Pandya didn’t get any wickets in his first two overs, but had bowled well to keep things tight. He got the rewards in his next two overs. First Iftikhar Ahmed feathered to Dinesh Karthik while playing a pull shot, thus the partnership between him and Rizwan was broken.
Then, in Pandya fourth over, Rizwan too followed back, failing to get on top of the bounce of a short ball and even though he tried to sway away from it, a thickish outside edge flew to thirdman where Avesh Khan took the catch.
A ball later, Khushdil flashed at another short and wide outside-off delivery, but his cut could only go as far as Jadeja at deep cover. Pandya was flying high today with a terrific bowling performance. And fans on social media lavished praise on the 28-year-old all-rounder.
Here are some of the best reactions to Hardik Pandya’s emphatic bowling performance vs Pakistan:
What a spell by Hardik Pandya, one of the MVPs in limited overs in world cricket, 3 for just 25 runs from 4 overs against Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/gKP7RsBAfX
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 28, 2022
Hardik Pandya backs himself. When he is fit, he changes the balance of any team he is in! Magnificent today
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) August 28, 2022
What a catch by Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya with his bouncer skill again.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 28, 2022
Hardik Pandya, I joked a lot in your absence last year. But I never doubted. Take my apology.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) August 28, 2022
Hardik short balls are a seriously threatening tactic. Bullied some of the best players of bounce with it in the England series and finishing this match with it now too
— Dave (@CricketDave27) August 28, 2022
Some people wrote threads about Venky Iyer being better than Hardik
— Rana Parveen (@RanaParveen20) August 28, 2022
Convinced Hardik would bowl a bouncer if he had to save his life with a delivery
— Prashanth S (@ps_it_is) August 28, 2022
People hailing Stokes yesterday; Hardik Pandya showing them today.. What a cricketer he has been since the IPL and his return to bowling!
Just terrific.. Two now, takes out Rizwan. Should be am easy win for india for hereon#INDvsPAK— Jatin Khandelwal (@jr_khandelwal) August 28, 2022
Now playing
Chin Music Ft. Hardik Pandya
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) August 28, 2022
Chin Music Ft. Hardik Pandya 
: BCCI |
2018 Asia Cup – Stretchered off vs Pakistan
2022 Asia Cup – Returns as India’s big-match winnerLife on the field comes full circle for Hardik Pandya tomorrow, writes @ayan_acharya13
— Sportstar (@sportstarweb) August 27, 2022
Dubai
Hardik Pandya’s bowling turning out to be too tough to handle for the Pakistan batters. He is troubling them with his pace and bounce.
The future Indian captain leading from the front!#INDvPAK | #AsiaCup2022
— Prasenjit Dey (@CricPrasen) August 28, 2022
Spicy bouncer that, Hardik Pandya! #INDvPAK
— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) August 28, 2022
Hardik showing what
— Baidurjo Bhose (@bbhose) August 28, 2022
missed in the game against 
in the T20 World Cup..a bowling Hardik is the best in the business 10 wickets for Hardik Pandya with short balls in T20I in 2022. pic.twitter.com/VXlpZZ67c5
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 28, 2022
Hardik pandya in today’s match:#INDvPAK pic.twitter.com/EfmRw6vp35
— Prayag (@theprayagtiwari) August 28, 2022
Another one for Hardik Pandya – he’s on fire. It’s his 3rd wicket, what a spell by Hardik.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 28, 2022
Shaheen Shah Afridi in T20WC 2021 against
Hardik Pandya in Asia Cup 2022 against
Guess what Hardik isn’t even our premier bowler, he’s an all rounder
Perfect slap in the faces of arrogant Pakistan fans.
“They cannot play him.”#INDvPAK#AsiaCup2022 pic.twitter.com/9HoamDhZd9
— Avinash (@imavinashvk) August 28, 2022
Earlier, Rohit Sharma had won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Teams:
Pakistan (Playing XI): Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shahnawaz Dahani
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
