The Indian all-rounder, Hardik Pandya witnessed a phenomenal outing in the ODI series in Australia and seems to have sealed that No. 6 positions for the team. There had been many questions raised earlier on whether he will be justifying teh role, provided that he was not bowling.. but he churned out 210 runs in 3 innings. India legend Sunil Gavaskar was mighty impressed by Hardik and said that the all-rounder has shown great maturity in this ODI series.
India’s 13-run win in Canberra was essentially set-up by the record 6th wicket partnership for India against Australia. Hardik and Ravindra Jadeja added 150 runs in the last 18 overs to take India to a par score of 302. They scored 76 runs in the last 5 overs. Pandya went on to score 92 runs in 76 balls, his highest score in ODI cricket, which also earned him the Man-of-the-Match performance for his brilliant batting skills.
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During a chat on India Today, Gavaskar said, “Today was very smart, very good cricket from this young man (Pandya) who is showing great maturity with every game that he is playing. Even the first game when he got to 90, the maturity that he showed there and today after Virat Kohli was out he recognized that the fact that he needed to bat until the end if India were to get to a total that they could defend.”
He further added, “And the way he and Jadeja planned that innings where they batted sensibly till the 40-42 overs and then they started to accelerate, and that made the difference in the game.”
Sunil Gavaskar was also impressed by the running between the wickets between Hardik and Jadeja and called both of them ‘supreme athletes’.
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The batting legend explained, “But you know what really made the difference as far as I am concerned was their running between the wickets. The sixes, if you time the ball well, you have the power and you can hit them. “But they were stealing the second run under the fielder’s noses. The ball was going straight to the fielder at long-off and long-on, and both these guys are supreme athletes.”
