Jan 29, 2025 10:35 am is
Hardik Pandya ended up scoring 40 runs off 35 balls at a strike rate of 114.29 and was dismissed in the penultimate over as India crumbled under pressure.
Senior all-rounder Hardik Pandya failed to get India over the line in the third T20I as the hosts crumbled under pressure and blew the chance to take an unassailable lead in a five-match series. Chasing the 172-run target, India failed to hold their nerves on the slow track and were restricted to 145/9 in front of Fair rashid (1/15), Jamie Overton (3/24) and Brydon Cars (2/28) in the middle overs.
Hardik, the Indian team’s designated finisher, looked rusty at the start of his innings and exhausted too many deliveries before breaking the shackles. After the end of the 16th over, Hardik was batting on 23 off 27 balls. He did smash a six in the next over of Mark Wood’s delivery and took his strike rate over 100.
The swashbuckling batter also smashed a six off Jofra Archer’s ball in the 18th over but was dismissed in the 19th over, which shifted the momentum completely in England’s favour.
He faced criticism from the fans for denying a single to Dhruv jurel on the last ball of the 18th over when the latter hit the ball at the square leg near the boundary line, but the duo didn’t take the single, so Hardik got the strike on the first ball of next over. However, it backfired for him and India as the star all-rounder went for a big shot on the first ball of Jamie Overton’s over and got caught by Jos Buttler at long-off. He ended up scoring 40 runs off 35 balls at a strike rate of 114.29.
India fail to bank on Varun’s fifer
Apart from Hardik, other lower-middle order batters Washington Sundar (6), Axar Patel (15) and Dhruv jurel (2) failed to score big as India failed to match the beat on the slow track.
Earlier, Varun Chakravarthy picked his second five-wicket haul in T20Is to give India some advantage while bowling but England overcame his 5-24 to beat the hosts by 26 runs to keep the series alive.
India had won the first two T20Is in Kolkata and Chennai by seven and two wickets, respectively. Pune will host the fourth match on Friday.
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