bala
It was a match to remember for bowler Hardik Pandya. It was equally one to forget for batter Hardik Pandya. and for captain Hardik Pandya, it was one hard to explain.
The Mumbai Indian star had a strange match in which he played multiple roles even as his team slumped to a 12-run defeat against LSG at Lucknow. This was MI's third loss in four matches, even as it searches for answers to turn its fortunes around.
The fortunes of Pandya, who controversially returned to MI colours as captain last year, see-sawed between extremes last night at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow.
As a bowler, he led MI attack with an inspired spell of 5 for 36 in his 4 overs. In his first spell, he prised out the in-form Nicholas Pooran and the out-of-nick Rishabh Pant. And coming back to bowl two overs at the death, Pandya scalped three more wickets. His spell halted LSG's batters who had threatened to put up a massive score after scoring 61 for no loss in the powerplay.
And when it came to his own batting, Pandya walked in at the fall of Surya Kumar's wicket at 17.1 overs with 52 runs to get. 52 off 23 deliveries, even if daunting, is not an impossibility at the death in modern T20s. But Pandya, whose final overs slogs have started to be less effective in recent times, couldn't get going. Even though he continued to hit boundaries, the big push never really came. In the final over, MI needed 22, and despite hitting a six off the first ball off Avesh Khan for a six, Pandya couldn't quite give the finishing touches. And in the end, he threw his bat in disgust, as MI fell short by 12 runs.
As captain too, Pandya had some bizarre runs last night. To start with, the team think-tank didn't include Rohit Sharma. Though injury was said to be the reason for his unavailability, nobody was really convinced. It seemed a strategic injury to cover up loss of form.
Anyway, the more controversial turn of events happened when MI decided to retire out impact sub Tilak Varma. He became the fourth player to retire out in the IPL with his team needing 24 off seven deliveries. Varma had till then scored 25 off 23. Not the most explosive batting, but still he looked a better bet than Mitchell Santner who replaced him at the crease.
Post-match. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene said it was his decision to retire Tilak out. But Pandya, as captain, couldn't distance himself from such a controversial call.