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Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya has copped a lot of blame for the franchise's ongoing misfortune against the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2024 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday.
Pandya won the toss and opted to bowl first, leading to SRH unleashing hell on the bowlers from the word go. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma scored record fifties as Hyderabad piled on 81 runs in the powerplay, and MI's misery extended into the middle overs as well.
However, amid SRH's carnage, Hardik Pandya surprisingly chose to hold back Jasprit Bumrah. The skipper only handed his strike bowler a solitary over across the first 13 overs of the innings, that too coming in the powerplay, which turned out to be the most economical over of the innings so far.
With Bumrah only bowling a single over, the other bowlers like debutant Kwena Maphaka, Hardik Pandya, and Piyush Chawla were taken to the cleaners. The damage was already done by the time Bumrah returned to the bowling attack, with the home side scoring 173 runs in just 12 overs.
Bumrah's second over brought a little respite as he conceded only seven runs in the 13th over of the innings. Despite the pacer still having two overs in his spell, SRH have seven wickets in hand, with Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram firing all cylinders.
Fans lambasted Hardik Pandya's captaincy in the contest, and here are some of the reactions on Twitter:
SRH inching towards a record total as Hardik Pandya's bad day at the helm continues
Although Bumrah bowling a couple of overs in his second spell has dried up the runs a bit, but it all comes a bit too late, as SRH are in the most comfortable position of them all.
The pair of Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram have ensured that the SunRisers reached the 200-run mark in just the 15th over itself.
It is to be noted that the highest score in IPL history is 263/5, which is a record in sight for the SRH since they have seven wickets in hand, and Bumrah only has one over left in his spell. The Orange Army are placed at 214/3 after 16 overs with both Markram and Klaasen crossing the 30-run mark in their respective knocks.
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