Manish Pandey made 21 in 23 balls for DC in their win over KKR.
DC finally got their first points in the IPL 2023 as they defeated KKR by 4 wickets. However, despite chasing just 127 runs, DC huffed and puffed their way to a victory in the last over. While David Warner made 57 runs, his fourth fifty in the tournament, it was Akshar Patel who ensured DC got past the finish line.
Also contributing was Manish Pandey, who made 21 runs in 23 balls, before being dismissed by Anukul Roy.
After the match, during a discussion on the Star Sports Cricket Live show, former BCCI chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth simply refused to answer a question about Manish Pandey.
When renowned broadcaster and Australian TV presenter Neroli Meadows asked Srikkanth what he thought about Pandey and his batting position, Srikkanth was visibly frustrated and behaved as if the question was never asked in the first place.
Check out the conversation here:
Meadows: Chikka, a word about Manish Pandey. He hasn’t quite been able to… (gets interrupted)
Srikkanth: Why are we talking about Manish Pandey? I don’t want to talk about him. The guy shouldn’t even be on the team. Let’s talk about Akshar Patel,and how he has been in the form of his life and deserves to bat higher.
Meadows: Well, Chikka seems to be pretty clear that he doesn’t want to talk about Manish Pandey.
Srikkanth: No, I don’t want to talk about him. He shouldn’t be in this team. If I was the chairman of selectors, he wouldn't have played.
Noticing the disinterest in Srikkanth, Sanjay Manjrekar took control of the situation and spoke about Pandey, explaining how the 33-year-old has had more misses than hits. The batter was the first Indian to score a century in the IPL, a feat he achieved in the 2009 edition in South Africa and even earned an India call-up.
But Pandey couldn’t manage to be consistent despite a brilliant century in Australia in an ODI win for India. Even in the IPL, Pandey hasn’t been able to stick with one franchise and has played for seven different teams.
This season, he has scored 97 runs from four matches including a half-century against RCB.