Virender Sehwag Lavishes Praise On 'Kung Fu' Pandya And MS Dhoni

Team India began the home season in the best possible manner, defeating world champions Australia by 26 runs (DLS method) to go one up in the five-match One-Day International series.

Batting first, India were off to a disastrous start with Nathan Coulter-Nile dismissing Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey cheaply to leave the hosts reeling at 11 for 3. Marcus Stoinis piled more misery on the Men in Blue by dismissing Rohit Sharma and Kedar Jadhav to reduce India to 87 for 5. However, the Men in Blue took command of the match thereon with Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni leading the charge by adding 118 runs for the sixth wicket.

Pandya was the major contributor in the partnership, scoring 83 off 66 balls including the over when he hit Adam Zampa for a four and 3 sixes on the four consecutive deliveries. Dhoni remained till the final over and scored 79 off 88 balls as India recovered from a poor start to post a challenging 283 for 7 in the allotted 50 overs.

The match was then interrupted by rain and when it resumed Australia were given a revised target of 164 in 21 overs. However, the reigning world champions never looked in contention to chase down the total and were eventually restricted to 137 for 9. Yuzvendra Chahal led the show by picking up 3 wickets while Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav picked up two each.

Virat Kohli & Co. have been garnering praise from all over for the impressive win and former India star Virender Sehwag has also congratulated the Men in Blue.

The swashbuckling opener, with special praise for Pandya, Chahal and Dhoni, took to Twitter to congratulate the team in his own style as he tweeted: “Congratulations India on a wonderful victory. KungFu Pandya,Chahal were brilliant and MS Dhoni as always showing the stuff that he is made of.”

Congratulations India on a wonderful victory.KungFu Pandya,Chahal were brilliant and MS Dhoni as always showing the stuff that he is made of

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) September 17, 2017