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Hardik Pandya (Source: Mint)
The 29th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between the Mumbai Indians (MI) and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) did not go in favour of MI as they lost the match by 20 runs. This match was extra memorable for CSK's captain Ruturaj Gaikwad as he defeated MI in their backyard. However, MI's captain Hardik Pandya received a lot of backlash after the match for his bowling and captaincy. India's former batter, Sunil Gavaskar criticised Pandya on live TV on Star Sports during the innings break.
"Probably the worst kind of bowling that I've seen for a long, long time. It almost looks like I've had this embrace with my hero. I've got the kind of deliveries that he's gonna hit for sixes. Oh, absolutely ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy. They should have been restricted despite the fact that Ruturaj Gaikwad had batted so well along with Shivam Dube. I do believe that they should have been restricted to 185-190," said Gavaskar.
This was MI's second loss at their home ground and now they are at the 8th position of the points table. After winning two back-to-back matches, their hopes were high during the clash against CSK as well, however, the visitor's bowling line-up deceived the entire batting line-up of the hosts.
'The young wicketkeeper scoring those three sixes helped us a lot...' - CSK Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad's kind words for MS Dhoni
The El Clasico of IPL between the MI and CSK was fun to watch as MS Dhoni came in to bat at 19.2 overs and scored three back-to-back sixes off Hardik Pandya due to which CSK crossed the 200 mark. Moreover, CSK won the match by 20 runs which were scored by Dhoni in the last over which was the icing on the cake. Hence, at the post-match presentation, Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad called MS Dhoni 'The Young Wicketkeeper' with a cheeky smile on his face.
"The young wicketkeeper scoring those three sixes helped us a lot, that proved to be the difference. We needed those 10-15 extra runs for this kind of venue. In the middle phase, Bumrah bowled really well. I feel we were spot on with our execution with the ball despite them scoring some great shots.," said Gaikwad at the post-match presentation.