Hardik Pandya is perhaps India’s game-changing player in T20 World Cup 2022 and yet he was the most unsettled one during the warm-up match against Australia in Brisbane. Although India managed to post 180 on the board, Pandya continued to struggle alongside several other top batters including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Also Read: T20 World Cup 2022: Mohammed Shami Justifies Selector’s Call With Epic Final Over | WATCH
Meanwhile coming back to Pandya, he was out playing just six deliveries and struggled to put bat on ball on five occasions. In one such occasion, he was up against Mitchell Starc whose delivery outside off stump beat him all ends up.
Even Pandya admitted and told his harrowing experience to Suryakumar Yadav himself. At this point, the stump mic caught him.
“Mujhe pata hi nahi chala. Kab aaya, kab beat hua. Pata hi nahi chala" (I had no clue about that delivery), the stump mic captured Pandya as saying to Suryakumar Yadav at the non-striker’s end. Pandya’s innings came to an end when tried to glide Kane Richardson down to third man but got a leading edge for the ball to land straight into the hands of Tim David at second slip. He later came on to bowl but conceded 29 off three overs and went wicketless.
pic.twitter.com/KC1jM18M0f— Guess Karo (@KuchNahiUkhada) October 17, 2022
Mohammed Shami made a surprise entry and picked up three wickets in the final over as India beat defending champions Australia by six runs in their first warm-up match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at The Gabba on Monday.
After fifties from KL Rahul (57) and Suryakumar Yadav (50) helped India post a challenging 186/7 in their 20 overs as fast bowler Kane Richardson picked 4/30, Australia needed 16 runs off the last two overs to successfully chase down the total.
But Harshal Patel conceded only five runs in a superb 19th over and picked up the wicket of captain Aaron Finch, who top-scored with a 54-ball 76, apart from a brilliant run-out of Tim David by Virat Kohli’s direct hit.
Shami was then a surprise pick to bowl the final over after having not bowled in the entire match and made his mark by having Pat Cummins caught at long-on, thanks to a phenomenal one-handed catch by Kohli at long-on.
Feeling good about it. Wanted to try out things, we don’t mind batting first, and setting up a target. Nice fresh pitch. We came here pretty early, we were in Perth having a preparatory camp. We are almost there. These games will allow us to get where we want. It’s obviously getting to the business end, and we want to try a few things. In my mind, I know what bowlers are going to play. It is important to give them that confidence, few of the guys have come for the first time in Australia. It is a nice place to play cricket. [Captaining the side] It is a privilege. It is the first time in15 years that I am captaining my country at a WC. We want to enjoy and have fun.
Shami then nailed his last two yorkers right and knocked over Josh Inglis and Kane Richardson to seal a narrow win for India in a final over where four wickets fell, including that of Ashton Agar.
The chase of 187 for Australia started well as Mitchell Marsh got some batting practice with an 18-ball 35, before falling in the final over of power-play, while Finch got going from the other end too. India started with five bowlers in five overs but were hammered for runs by Marsh and Finch.
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