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Former Indian batter Manoj Tiwary didn’t mince words when assessing Hardik Pandya’s batting performance in Mumbai Indians’ second match of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday. Despite a strong start, Mumbai Indians ultimately fell short in their pursuit of the record target of 278 runs, marking their second loss of the season.
Tiwary scrutinized Hardik Pandya‘s struggle to maintain momentum, noting that while the MI skipper began with promise but failed to capitalize, managing just 24 runs from 20 deliveries by the end. The former India batter pointed out that on a few occasions, the all-rounder was hitting the short-pitched deliveries down the ground despite the fact that MI needed as many runs as they could accumulate to stay on track in the mammoth chase.
Pandya’s strike rate of 120 was notably the lowest among all Mumbai batters who took to the field that Wednesday, prompting Tiwary’s pointed criticism of his performance.
“If you look at the strike rate of MI batters… Hardik Pandya is a big-hitting player, but he struck at only 120. Yes, the bowling was good at that time, but one thing that irked me was the shots he hit against back-of-length. He was hitting the shots down the ground,” Tiwary told Cricbuzz.
“Generally, when the asking rate is 14-15, and you have such a big player, you’d want them to at least try for a six. Attempting to get a single or two, or even a four, wasn’t the demand of the situation. That irked me. And that shows he is not in good form. In the last match, he did start well but was dismissed. We have seen that he has rescued the team on many occasions.”
Multiple T20 records were broken on Wednesday during the match between SRH and MI, as the former posted the highest-ever score in IPL history. Overall, the game saw 523 runs being scored, marking the first occasion when an IPL match fetched over 500 runs. Additionally, 38 sixes were hit in total, which is also a new T20 record.
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