Flamboyant Hardik Pandya produced a brilliant spell with the ball in the second T20I against West Indies but it wasn’t enough to take India over the line in Guyana. However, the three wickets he claimed helped him become the third highest-wicket taker for India in T20Is.
Pandya pipped Ravichandran Ashwin (72) and Jasprit Bumrah (70) to move up in the tally. The flamboyant all-rounder now has 73 scalps under his kitty and is behind Yuzvendra Chahal (95) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (90) in the elusive list.
The 28-year-old ran riot with the ball in the first over as he dismissed Brandon King for a golden duck while dismissing Johnson Charles in the same over for 2. He later returned to the attack and got the crucial wicket of his counterpart Rovman Powell for 21.
However, the Indian T20I captain failed to make a major impact with the bat and scored just 24 runs as India were restricted to 152/7. The total was only a touch better than the 145/9 they managed in the first game. The Indian batters have failed to shine in the first two matches of the series as apart from young Tilak Varma, others have struggled to get going. West Indies managed to chase down the target with seven balls to spare with two wickets in hands.
Hardik was not pleased with his team’s batting performance in Guyana as he suggested 170 would have been a challenging total on the surface.
“That was not a pleasing batting performance by us. The wickets were falling and the track was on the slower side. We were not good enough to get to 160 plus,” Hardik said in the post-match presentation.
India trail the five-match series 0-2 with the likes of Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson failing to score runs.
“With the current combination we have we will have to trust our top seven 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.”
Comments
0 comment