Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has divided opinions after he decided to bowl the 20th over of the Chennai Super Kings innings in the recent high-voltage clash between the two sides in IPL 2024 in Mumbai on Sunday.
CSK had been asked to bat first by Hardik Pandya, who won the toss at home. Thanks to 69 by CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and 66* by Shivam Dube, the visitors were poised at 180/3 when the final over of their innings began.
Hardik Pandya took the responsibility of bowling the said over despite yorker specialist Akash Madhwal having an over in the bank. Hardik bowled 2 wides in the first 2 balls and was hit for a four by Daryl Mitchell.
However, Mitchell was dismissed by Pandya on the second legal ball of the over, bringing in MS Dhoni to the crease. With four balls left in the over, excitement was at its peak and MS Dhoni blew everyone’s mind as he hit three sixes in the next three balls off Pandya and ended the over with 2 runs.
He remained unbeaten on 20 off 4 balls as Pandya went for 26 runs and CSK posted 206/4 in 20 overs.
In response, despite 105* by Rohit Sharand apart from Tilak Varma (31) and Ishan Kishan (23), none of the other batters came to the party. MI only managed 186/6 and lost the game by 20 runs.
After the match, Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan fumed at Hardik's decision to bowl the last over despite Akash Madhwal, who has been impressive in the death overs for MI, having an over left.
Pathan was also critical of Pandya’s inept bowling against the experienced MS Dhoni, questioning his ability to bowl in death overs.
“Hardik Pandya bowling the last over showed the lack of faith in Akash Madhwal’s bowling and his own lack of skill as a death over bowler,” he posted on X.
However, Brett Lee was a bit soft on Hardik Pandya, but said “In hindsight, it turned out to be a wrong decision."
He said on Jio Cinema: “If he came in and bowled two bits of yorkers, contained him for eight runs, made people wicket, that's a great cap scene. So I could see that ownership of him trying to look after his bowler at the other end, mud wall, saying, well, I don't want to put him under any more pressure. Going for twelve and a half and over, I'll do it by myself. But it turned out it wasn't the right call. And he has to live by that. Has to live by that.”
Lee’s former Australia teammate Adam Gilchrist said that the decision by Hardik to bowl the final over showed his confidence, but did reckon that the “scattered” bowling against Dhoni showed that he is not completely fit to bowl.
"The only positive about Hardik Pandya and his bowling was that he was prepared to take on the challenge. I am captain, I am gonna have a crack but then he looks proppy, as we use in Australian sporting terms, you are not quite fluent. He does not look anywhere near 100 percent fit with the ball in hand and if there is any doubt about the physicality. His bowling was scattered," Gilchrist said on Cricbuzz.
