Hardik Pandya is sitting pretty much far from Team India but it has not stopped him from following his teammates in the ongoing series against Australia. The allrounder, who had returned to the team during the tour of New Zealand after recovering from a back injury and serving a suspension, has suffered a back injury again before the start of the T20I series. Consequently, he was ruled out of the T20I and ODI series against Australia.
It, however, has not stopped him from following the team as he praised Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni for their match-winning fifties in the first ODI on Saturday.
Chasing a modest 237, India were off to a poor start as Nathan Coulter-Nile dismissed Shikhar Dhawan for a first-ball duck. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli then steadied the ship, taking the score past the fifty run-mark. However, just when it looked the duo is well set and would bat India to a position of strength, Australia struck back by dismissing both of them in quick succession.
Adam Zampa broke the 76-run stand between Rohit and Kohli by sending back the latter for 44. Coulter-Nile then accounted for Rohit to reduce India to 95 for 3 before Zampa struck again to remove Ambati Rayudu and leave India reeling at 99 for 4.
Another wicket would have surely put India in a lot of trouble. But before Australia could make further inroads in the game, Jadhav and Dhoni joined hands to bail India out of trouble. Playing according to the situation, the duo took its time early on. However, as the game progressed they found their groove and started playing the big shots.
FIFTY!
A composed innings from @JadhavKedar as he brings up his 5th ODI half-century #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/PAk0WecE0A
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 2, 2019
They eventually went on to share an unbeaten stand of 141 to take India home with ten balls remaining. Jadhav scored 81 while Dhoni remained unbeaten on 59.
Meanwhile, during the game BCCI’s official Twitter handle posted a video of Jadhav and Dhoni to update about the 100-run stand between them. The fans were applauding the batsmen and Hardik Pandya joined the bandwagon too. Replying to BCCI’s tweet, Pandya wrote:
“Pleasing to eye ?”
Pleasing to eye ?
— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) March 2, 2019