Mumbai: Gujarat Titans (GT) skipper Hardik Pandya’s outburst at team-mate and senior India bowler Mohammed Shami, after the latter did not go all out to take a catch in Monday night’s game against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), has not gone down well with the all-rounder’s fans.
At the DY Patil stadium Monday, a measured half-century from captain Kane Williamson, after their bowlers had applied the brakes in the last five overs, sealed SRH’s eight-wicket win over Gujarat Titans.
After the bowlers had conceded 44 runs and taken three wickets in the last five overs to restrict Gujarat to 162/7, Williamson led the chase with patience and precision while making 57 off 46 balls, laced with two fours and four sixes. He found support from Abhishek Sharma (42) and Nicholas Pooran doing the finishing job with an unbeaten 34.
It was in the 13th over being bowled by Pandya that the Titans skipper shouted at Shami after the latter apparently did not go all out to take a catch offered by Rahul Tripathi. Before that, SRH skipper Kane Williamson had hit Pandya for back-to-back maximums off the second and third ball of the over.
The Titans had an opportunity to dismiss the New Zealander’s partner Tripathi off the last ball of the over when the 31-year-old batter’s upper cut went horribly wrong and flew towards deep third man.
Shami, posted in the deep, could have latched on to the catch had he moved forward. Instead, the veteran India pacer moved back a couple of steps and collected the ball on first bounce. Already clobbered for two sixes by Williamson in the over, Pandya vent his anger at Shami.
A fan called Pandya a terrible skipper, tweeting, “Dear Hardik, you are a terrible captain. Stop taking it out on your teammates, particularly someone as senior as Shami,” while another fan wrote “@hardikpandya7 shouting at the #mohammedshami is disgraceful what Shami has done for #Indianteam is commendable and #Hardik has not even done half of it. #shameful #HardikPandya.”
Another fan wrote, “Hardik Pandya doesn’t deserve to be the Captain of any team one who doesn’t know how to speak to the team members and that too a senior player shouldn’t be the Captain you do not win all games Cricket is a gentleman game pls note @hardikpandya7.”