A match riddled with rain interruptions, Mumbai Indians versus Gujarat Titans proved as chaotic as this season’s Indian Premier League playoff race. One captain would leave the Wankhede ebullient with his performance, the other, not so much.
Hardik Pandya had an abysmal outing, to say the least. With the bat, he contributed nothing, edging a delivery from Sai Kishore to his opposite number at Gujarat Titans. With the ball, he delivered the eighth over, a nightmare spell consisting of eleven deliveries, equalling the joint-highest number of balls bowled in an over in IPL history. That moment shifted the momentum in GT’s favour, especially with the DLS method coming into play.
“We lost the game when we had control of it,” said Mumbai Indians’ head coach Mahela Jayawardene during the post-match press conference.
The match ended in heartbreak for MI, symbolised by Pandya crouched on his haunches, his face buried in his palms. On the final ball of the match, with a chance to take the game to a Super Over, he missed a direct hit at the bowler’s end. In fairness, he had little choice — Deepak Chahar didn’t cover the stumps in time, and although Suryakumar Yadav was nearby, he perhaps wasn’t in position to collect the throw.
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But was that the only missed opportunity?
After rain halted play for the final time — around midnight — MI were left to defend 15 runs in the last over. Somewhat surprisingly, Pandya handed the ball to Deepak Chahar instead of bowling it himself.
Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar questioned the call while speaking to the broadcaster. He said, “As I explained earlier, because of the fact that he [Hardik] had bowled those final overs — and bowled them very well — he bowled that over against Bangladesh where we took three wickets; Bangladesh needed four or five runs, and India won that game by one. And then, in the final of the ICC T20 World Cup last year in the West Indies, in Barbados, he bowled that final over and India won.”
Gavaskar may have a point. While Hardik’s death-over numbers aren’t the best, he has often risen to the occasion in pressure situations. Against LSG earlier this season, he held himself back after two overs in the middle phase and returned to bowl the 18th and 20th. He made the batters play on his terms — nine of his 12 balls landed where he wanted — claiming three wickets, including those of set batters Aiden Markram and David Miller. He finished with his first-ever T20 five-fer.
According to stats from Cricmetric, Hardik has bowled 41 balls in the final four overs this season, conceding 81 runs with four dismissals, three of those coming in that LSG game and has a dot-ball percentage of 14.6%. In total, he has picked up 13 wickets in 11 matches at a strike rate of 12.92 balls per wicket — not a poor showing by any means. Yet, the lack of confidence shown by him in himself on Tuesday might just tilt the momentum in the wrong direction for MI.
Coach Jayawardene, however, seemed unfazed by the decision. “He [Chahar] was good — our main bowler,” he said. “It’s easier for you to ask me that question and for me to say. Had Hardik gone for three sixes, you might have asked me why we didn’t bowl Deepak. I don’t like to go to that.”
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