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Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya is lacking support from the crowd in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). From Ahmedabad to Hyderabad to Mumbai, Hardik got booed by the hostile crowd unhappy with his appointment as captain replacing five-time IPL-winning captain Rohit Sharma. On April 1, Hardik walked out to bat when MI were in desperate need of a partnership. Hardik, Naman Dhir, and Dewald Brevis got out for golden ducks and MI were reduced to 20/4 in the fourth over. He walked out to bat to boos from the crowd but soon he was able to turn them into cheers.
Hardik took on South Africa's left-arm pacer Nandre Burger in the sixth over and hit him for three fours in the 16-run over. After the fielding restrictions, he whacked Avesh Khan for a boundary over short-third man. He hit a couple more fours before falling to Yuzvendra Chahal. The leggie lured him into a big shot. He threw the kitchen sink at it but got caught by substitute fielder Rovman Powell in the deep. He fell for a 21-ball 34. He shared a 56-run partnership with Tilak Varma who scored 32 runs from 29 balls.
After losing his wicket, the 30-year-old sat next to MI mentor Sachin Tendulkar in the dugout. The two seemed to be having a conversation about what went wrong with the shot against Chahal that put a full stop to a counter-attacking knock. Hardik was the top run-scorer for MI in the innings.
Manjrekar defends Hardik
Earlier, Hardik was booed by the Wankhede crowd at the coin toss. There were ‘Rohit-Rohit’ chants which turned into boos. Cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar was not happy with the crowd’s behaviour and asked them to ‘behave’.
Crowd’s behaviour shocks Morgan
England’s only ODI World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan was surprised by the hostile crowd. He said that he never saw something like that happen to an Indian cricketer.
"Rohit Fans are around the world and it seems they are not happy with the decision and I haven't seen any Indian cricketer getting booed like this," Morgan said.
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