During the second T20I against South Africa, for the first time in the limited overs series, Team India found themselves in a proper mess as the top four batsmen were back in the pavilion with just under half the innings to go.
With the scoreboard reflecting 92 runs on the board at the end of the 11th over, the chances of Men in Blue reaching an expected par score of 175 looked to be a distant dream. After 16 overs, India didn’t look any closer to the par score with the scoreboard reading just 133 runs. However, Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni, who stitched together a brilliant unbeaten 98 run partnership, ended up scoring 55 runs in the last 4 overs to guide the visitors to a competitive total of 188.
While Pandey addressed quite a few topics, from his batting position to Heinrich Klaasen, his comment on batting with Dhoni in the last few overs left the journalists in splits during the post-match press conference.
“I think Mahi woke up (laughs). It was his chance, he’s probably the best lower down the order. In the last couple of overs, he looks to dominate and that’s what happens. He’s done that a number of times. I thought SA bowled fairly well. It’s just that a couple of inside edges went to the boundary and some really good shots by Mahi took us to 188. I think South Africa bowled fairly well today.”
During the match, meanwhile, Manish had to face some music from Dhoni as the stump mic caught the wicketkeeper-batsman having a go at the right-handed batsman.
This incident happened during the 20th over when the Ranchi lad was batting on 35.
“Oye. Bh****ke. Idhar dekh le. Udhar kya dekh raha hai. (Look here. Why are you staring over there),” he was heard saying on the stump mic.
You know pressure has mounted when MS Dhoni loses his cool. Last night's pressure got the better of Dhoni. Here’s what happened. #NotSoFriendly #SAvsIND pic.twitter.com/xlFAwuWd6u
— Sony LIV (@SonyLIV) February 22, 2018
