The recent Baroda v Tamil Nadu match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy 2024 saw some fireworks from Vijay Shankar and Hardik Pandya at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on November 27, 2024.
Baroda captain Krunal Pandya won the toss and chose to bowl first. TN opener Narayan Jagadeesan (57) gave a good start, while captain Shahrukh Khan (36) carried the momentum forward.
However, the moment of the TN innings came when Vijay Shankar got stuck into Hardik Pandya’s medium pacers. In the 17th over of their innings, Vijay Shankar hit Hardik Pandya for three sixes in the over.
The Tamil Nadu batter slammed a maximum of the first two deliveries and then took a single off the third ball. On the last ball of the over, Shankar got the strike once more and he slammed the third maximum of the over.
Check here:
TN made 221/6 in 20 overs as Shankar made 42* in 22 balls with 4 sixes. Lukman Meriwala picked three wickets for Baroda.
In reply, the match got into a very interesting situation after Baroda's top-order gave a good platform for the middle order to launch a scathing attack on TN bowlers. Bhanu Paria (42 in 20), and Krunal Pandya (22) started the demolition job, which was carried forward by Hardik Pandya.
Pandya hammered 69 in 30 balls with 4 fours and 7 sixes as Baroda inched closer to the win. The highlight of his knock was a 29-run over when he smashed left-arm pacer Gurjapneet Singh for 4 sixes and one four.
Incidentally, Gurjapneet Singh was bought by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the recent IPL 2025 mega auction.
See Hardik Pandya’s demolition job here:
However, Hardik Pandya couldn’t take Baroda to the win as he was run out on the first ball of the final over. With 10 runs needed off the last over, Pandya hit the ball tmid-wicketet and tried to take a risky second run.
Vijay Shankar, who had earlier hit Hardik for 3 sixes in an over, did a fabulous job of picking the ball and throwing it in one motion. The ball hit the stumps directly and Pandya was run out for 69.
Here is the video:
However, Atit Sheth managed to hit a boundary off the last ball to give Baroda an entertaining 3- 3-wicket win over Tamil Nadu.
