In the nail-biting Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 clash between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Gujarat Titans (GT), a dog halted the proceedings during skipper Hardik Pandya’s over. Hardik on his MI captaincy debut tried to pet the dog but it continued to run circles around the ground before eventually he was taken outside.
The Ahmedabad crowd was hostile towards MI skipper Hardik who left GT in a controversial trade. He was booed by the crowd on several occasions. They even cheered the dog as it interrupted Hardik in the 15th over.
Hardik was not impressive with the new ball. In the three overs, he conceded 30 runs. In the run chase of 169, he came to bat after the completion of the 18th over. MI needed 25 runs in the final two overs. He played just one ball in the penultimate over bowled by Spencer Johnson. In the final over, he smashed Umesh Yadav for a six and then a four. However, he mistimed the pull shot and lost his wicket on the third ball.
MI ended up losing yet another opening game of the season. They were seven runs short of the target despite former MI skipper Rohit Sharma and impact player Dewald Brevis’ knocks.
Hardik rues losing momentum in slog overs
In the post-match presentation, Hardik said that MI batters lost momentum in the final five overs.
“Obviously we backed ourselves to chase those 42 runs but it was one of those days when we see the score quite less compared to what it could have been in five overs, I think we lost little bit of momentum there,” he said.
He liked the atmosphere at the Narendra Modi Stadium despite the hostile crowd.
“It feels good to be back because this is one stadium where you can enjoy and feel the atmosphere quite lively and obviously the crowd was full and they got a good game as well,” the 30-year-old said.
He backed Tilak Varma for denying a single to Tim David against Rashid Khan as he said, “I think Tilak felt that that was a better idea at that point of time, I completely back him, not an issue, 13 games to go.”
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