England vs India: Hardik Pandya hits his maiden T20I half-century off 30 balls
India Today
ENG vs IND, 1st T20I, Hardik Pandya scored his maiden T20I fifty against England in the first game of the series at the Rose Bowl in Southmapton.
Hardik Pandya, on Thursday, July 7, smashed his maiden T20I half-century after making his debut way back in January 2016 against Australia at the Adelaide Oval. In his 62nd match for the Men in Blue, the right-hander got to his fifty against England in the first T20I at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
Prior to Thursday’s match, Pandya had a top score of an unbeaten 42 off 22 balls against Australia back in December 2020 at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground. As far as the ongoing game is concerned, Hardik came to bat after India lost Deepak Hooda’s wicket with the score at 89 for three in 8.4 overs.
From there on, he didn’t die wondering and kept playing his shots. The veteran started with three glorious fours off leg-spinner Callum Parkinson and looked in good touch right from the word go. He also got to 49 with a colossal six off the tweaker over the long-off region.
Thereafter, he took a single through mid-off to get to the half-century. However, a couple of balls later, he perished to left-arm fast bowler Reece Topley. Pandya miscued a shot and Harry Brook took an easy catch at deep point.
Hardik got out after scoring 51 runs off 33 balls with the help of six fours and one six. On the back of Hardik’s knock, India racked up a massive score of 198 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs. Apart from Pandya, Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav also chipped in with scores of 33 and 39 respectively.