In one of the rare instances in IPL, a player from the losing side was given the Man of the Match award as Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shikhar Dhawan‘s innings of 99* (66) went in vain against the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday in Hyderabad.
Dhawan waged a lone battle against the SRH bowlers, scoring 99 unbeaten runs off 66 balls and dragging PBKS to a total of 143/9. For SRH, Mayank Markande took 4 wickets for only 15 runs and Rahul Tripathi’s blitzkrieg of 74*(48) helped SRH chase down the target in 17.1 overs.
However, the panel of commentators decided to give Dhawan the Man of the Match award to reward his outstanding one-man show in the game.
After receiving the Player of the Match award, Dhawan was to talk with commentator Harsha Bhogle, who was conducting the post-match presentation. In his first couple of sentences, Shikhar Dhawan joked about Bhogle’s tweet a few days ago when Bhogle had raised the issue of whether the anchor batters like Shikhar Dhawan are needed in high-scoring encounters.
That day, Shikhar Dhawan had scored 86* off 56 balls against Rajasthan Royals after being on run-a-ball 30 when Prabhsimaran Singh was hammering big hits from one end. PBKS had won against RR by only 5 runs and Bhogle had pointed out whether Dhawan was a bit too slow at the start of his innings while playing the anchor role.
Shikhar Dhawan trolls Harsha Bhogle in style
Then, after the SRH game, Dhawan teased Bhogle about his today’s knock, saying that he hoped Bhogle was happy with his strike rate, and added that he’d seen his tweet, to which both of them smiles and shared a laugh.
“I hope you were happy with my strike-rate as you tweeted something. I can bowl googlies as well!” Dhawan said to Harsha Bhogle.
Watch the conversation between Dhawan and Bhogle here:
What did Harsha Bhogle tweet on Dhawan?
Bhogle had tweeted: “Shikhar Dhawan’s innings will raise, should raise, the question of whether you can have an anchor batter, especially in these conditions. You can appear to have increased your strike rate by the end, but the 30 balls at run-a-ball can hurt.”
Shikhar Dhawan said, "I hope you'll be happy with my strike rate, Harsha". https://t.co/wFZ7r2whn7 pic.twitter.com/h9mJIPM9yn
— Cricspaceoffl (@cricspaceoffl) April 10, 2023
We have mature chats: Harsha Bhogle
After this incident with Shikhar, Bhogle took to Twitter to clear out the air.
“Had a lovely chat with Shikhar post game, always easy conversation with him, where he said he was trying to play shots the other day but struggled. And that the form of Prabhsimran and his own calmness and experience allowed him to ride over the situation. We have mature chats,” he tweeted.
Sometimes, only sometimes, the end overcomes the beginning. It doesn't justify the beginning. But you know, everyone has some days where everything goes right and others where you struggle and overcome. Our job is to observe, it is never personal. That is where you build respect
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 9, 2023
