During the end of the third match of the fourteenth edition of Indian Premier League, between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders, Manish Pandey was seen getting subjected to the criticism on social media for his knock of not out 61 runs off 44 deliveries. Chasing the total 188 runs set by KKR, SRH lost both their openers, David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha in just three overs.
However, the Orange Army was kept in check by Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey, who set the partnership of 92 runs in the chase. The dismissal of Bairstow in the 13th over resulted in the collapse of the batting line-up as Mohammed Nabi and Vijay Shankar, both failed to keep up their pace by getting dismissed at 14 and 11 runs respectively. Later on, for his inability to switch gears towards the end, Pandey was massively criticized.
Former Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag gave his opinion on Manish Pandey’s slow innings saying that the SRH would have easily won the game if the player had taken the initiative of smashing a few boundaries in the end.
“Pandey couldn’t hit a boundary in the last three overs he batted against KKR. That lone six came off the ball when the match was over. He had an important role to play. He already had faced the pressure and was set. Had he taken the initiative to smash a few boundaries, SRH wouldn’t have lost the game by 10 runs.”
“It happens sometimes that you are a set batsman but you don’t get the balls to hit. I think the same thing had happened with Manish Pandey. He didn’t get any ball in his radar and hence, he couldn’t hit a six,” Virender Sehwag said.
What is interesting here is the fact, that it was Sehwag who had disparaged the player on social media saying that the teams won’t win in IPL if the batsmen do swat-padding.
