IPL 2021: Virender Sehwag takes an indirect dig at Manish Pandey
Virender Sehwag, the former Indian batsman, reckons that teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) need to be more circumspect and make necessary adjustments to their batting to taste success. He made the comment after the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) failed to chase down 188 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday, April 11 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
In the run-chase, Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey scored fifties, but their efforts went in vain as the Orange Army ended with 177 runs. The young Abdul Samad raised hopes with a couple of lusty blows off Pat Cummins in the penultimate over of SRH’s innings. However, Andre Russell, the Jamaican all-rounder, made sure that the Sunrisers weren’t allowed to get away with the game.
Sehwag feels that the batters should be able to accelerate in the hour of need and teams should make better use of their power-hitters. The tweet seemed to be an indirect dig at Pandey, who scored 55 off 40 balls.
Here’s the tweet:
Teams that will have stat padding batsmen end up batting long overs without changing gears quickly will struggle. Depriving hitters and finishers by leaving very less balls and making it very difficult. Happened last year, and such teams will struggle always #IPL
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) April 11, 2021
After SRH’s 10-run loss, David Warner, their skipper, stated that his team had a fair chance when Pandey and Bairstow were going great guns. The left-hander said that even as dew played a part, the Knights got the measure of the conditions.
“I didn’t think there were that many runs on this wicket. They adapted really well, had a good partnership. We failed to execute the first ball of most overs and then conceded a lot at the end. We lost early wickets, and Jonny and Manish got us in a good position, so we had our chances,” Warner said after the game.
“The dew made a difference. If the bowlers over pitched, it was easy to hit it, and with the height in their team, and with the cross-seam, it stopped a little bit on us,” the southpaw added. SRH’s second IPL 2021 game is against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 14 in Chennai.
