Hardik Pandya’s all-round performance was one of the main factors behind India pulling off a terrific four-wicket win against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup on Sunday. He took 3/30 as India restricted Pakistan to 159/8 in 20 overs. Then he scored 40 off 37 balls and stitched a match-winning 113 run-stand in just 78 balls with Virat Kohli (82*). Pandya made history as he became the first Indian to cross 1000 T20I runs and take 50 wickets.
After the match, he turned emotional, recalling how his late father moved cities to fulfill a young boy’s cricketing dreams. “I was only thinking about my dad. I have not cried about my dad. I love my son, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to do for him what my dad did for me. He moved cities for a six-and-a-half-year old boy’s dreams without knowing I’d get to where I am today. So, this is for him,” said Hardik on Star Sports.
“I will be grateful forever. If he hadn’t given me a chance, I won’t be standing here. He made a big sacrifice, he shifted to a different city for his kids. We were six at that time, and he shifted an entire city and his entire business. It was a big thing.”
Even if it’s tears….the tears are happy
Emotional Moments…
Congratulations Hardik.
congratulations Virat.
congratulations team India.@hardikpandya7 @BCCI @icc #T20WorldCup #INDvsPAK2022 @imVkohli pic.twitter.com/9GaRO6b6Ld— PRIYA RANJAN PATRA (@PRIYARANJAN199) October 23, 2022
Tears on Hardik Pandya when he talking about this win and his father pic.twitter.com/vBVXDxUkUL
— Cricket Page (@CricketPage3) October 23, 2022
India captain Rohit Sharma also lauded Pandya’s effort in India registering a win in a tricky chase. “Well, when you have guys like those battle in the middle, you always believe that you’re going to get the scores because Hardik has especially batted in that type of situation a lot, and Virat with his experience, with the kind of batsman he is, we always believed that these guys can pull us off from that situation,” he said.
“Actually we got rewarded bowling that length, as well. Hardik in particular bowling that kind of length and a couple of their batters trying to play cross-batted short got the top edge, and we got the wicket, and that is something that we spoke of at the start,” Rohit replied on a different question.
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