After a heartbreaking defeat for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 11 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, a fan asked Virendra Sehwag the reason for Manish Pandey not hitting any boundaries in the last few overs.
Pandey, who came in to bat at no. three and looked steady with Johnny Bairstow in their 92 run stand, couldn’t manage a single boundary in the last six overs barring the one he hit in the final ball.
The twist came in the 13th over when Pat Cummins bowled quite an economical over, giving just two runs and took the wicket of Bairstow in the final ball of the over, forcing the Englishman to depart for a well made 40-ball 55.
It became the turning point as Pandey kept looking for runs but couldn’t capitalise on his score and take his franchise over the finish line.
The 31-year-old constantly looked for support from the other end, but his partnerships were intermittent as the next batter Mohammed Nabi, could only manage 14 runs off 11 balls. With Pandey batting at 47, SRH were stranded at 131 for four at the end of the 16th over and still needed 57 runs off four overs at a run rate of 14.25.
The Nainital-born lad couldn’t change his gears and found it difficult to hit a boundary in the remaining overs. Chasing 187, SRH lost by ten runs and ended their innings at 177 for 5.
Talking about the same, Sehwag opined that the Karnataka batsman couldn’t find the right ball to hit.
“It happens sometimes that you are a set batsman but you don’t get the balls to hit. I think the same thing had happened with Manish Pandey. He didn’t get any ball in his radar and hence, he couldn’t hit a six,” said the veteran Indian opener.
The Najafgarh-born made an indirect dig at Manish by adding that had he taken the initiative to smash a few boundaries, the Hyderabad based franchise wouldn’t have lost.
“Pandey couldn’t hit a boundary in the last three overs he batted against KKR. That lone six came off the last ball when the match was over. He had an important role play. He already had faced the pressure and was set. Had he taken the initiative to smash a few boundaries, SRH wouldn’t have lost the game by 10 runs,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
Dubbed as the Sultan of Multan, Sehwag also tweeted that if the batter is looking to improve his stats, his franchise will suffer as he will not give finishers the chance to come in at the right time.
Teams that will have stat padding batsmen end up batting long overs without changing gears quickly will struggle. Depriving hitters and finishers by leaving very less balls and making it very difficult. Happened last year, and such teams will struggle always #IPL
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) April 11, 2021
Meanwhile, former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra praised KKR captain Eoin Morgan, for his field adjustments. Nehra said that once the mid-wicket fielder was sent deep, Pandey found it difficult to score runs as his favourite areas are towards mid-wicket and long on.
“Pandey’s radar is mostly towards mid-wicket and long-on. Until the mid-wicket fielder was up (inside the circle), he got runs. Once the fielder went deep, Pandey found it difficult to score. For this, I would like to appreciate KKR captain Eoin Morgan. He may have made the change in the field a bit late but the move worked in restricting Manish Pandey,” said the 41-year-old cricketer-turned analyst.
