Hardik Pandya Gives Rohit Sharma Sigh Of Relief With Clinical Bowling Show Ahead Of T20 World Cup 2024

Mumbai: Hardik Pandya got his rhythm back before the T20 World Cup 2024 as the Mumbai Indians captain struck back to form with the ball against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium during their IPL 2024 encounter. The India all-rounder found the momentum to return with figures of 4-0-31-3 to produce an impactful performance. His return to form with the ball comes at a good time for India.

Coming into attack in the seventh over, Pandya conceded 11 runs in his first over. He conceded the same in his second over too before striking in the first ball of his third over with the wicket of Nitish Reddy. Pandya next two wickets came in his final over as he dismissed Shahbaz Ahmad and Marco Jansen. The right-arm medium pacer bowled a variety of deliveries, ranging from 141 kmph to 114 kmph and clearly played a huge part in pulling down the SRH run-flow.

So far in the IPL, Pandya has taken nine wickets with an economy of 10.76. With Pandya among wickets, it will be a sigh of relief for the Indian captain and his Mumbai Indians teammate Rohit Sharma. Not to forget, Pandya has been added in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 as the fourth seamer after Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh.

In fact in the last three games (including today’s), Pandya has picked up seven wickets. As far as the match is concerned, besides Pandya, veteran Piyush Chawla also bagged three wickets as Mumbai Indians restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad for a below-par 173/8. Chawla (4-0-33-3) produced an impactful performance to trouble the SRH batters.

In complete contrast to last time these teams met earlier in this IPL when SRH hammered 277/3, their usually free-flowing batters struggled for momentum and lack of initiative meant they could never really trouble the Mumbai bowlers.

Coming on to bowl only in the second half of the innings, Chawla made the biggest impact with key wickets of Travis Head (48) and Heinrich Klaasen (2) to put Mumbai Indians in complete control.