Manish Pandey’s strike-rate against Kolkata wasn’t ideal: Aakash Chopra

Renowned commentator Aakash Chopra opines that Manish Pandey’s strike rate of 138.64 wasn’t ideal during the SRH’s opening game. David Warner & Co. player their first match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL). After the Knights set the target of 188, Manish Pandey played until the very end and stayed unbeaten on 55 runs off 40 balls. Pandey also formed a crucial 92-run stand with Jonny Bairstow for the third wicket. The duo helped SRH make a comeback after the loss of two early wickets.

Once the English batsman was removed, Pandey seemed to be struggling, and of course, he lacked support from the other end. The required run-rate went up in the death overs and Pandey couldn’t manage to hit a boundary in the last six overs, except for the six he hit off the last ball. In his brilliant knock, Pandey smashed five boundaries and three sixes, but Chopra believes that the batsman wasn’t able to up the ante in the hour of need. Manish Pandey was the highest run-scorer for the orange army with his unbeaten knock. However, he could not win the match for his team. Pandey hit 2 sixes and 3 boundaries during his knock. Sunrisers Hyderabad remained 10 runs short of victory after acquiring 22 runs off the last over.

Surprised with Abdul Samad’s batting position: Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra was also astonished by Abdul Samad’s batting position in SRH’s 10-run loss on Sunday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Batting at number seven, Abdul Samad slammed an eight-ball 19*. In the 19th over, he also hit Australian pacer Pat Cummins for two sixes to keep the Sunrisers in the competition.

Earlier, opening batsman Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) hit fluent half-centuries to script KKR’s comfortable 10-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad. KKR has got their campaign off to a great start and would like to hold on to the momentum going ahead in the tournament. The Sunrisers, led by David Warner, is going to play their next game with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 14 at the Chepauk itself.

IPL 2021: Sunrisers Hyderabad full squad

David Warner (C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Manish Pandey, Rashid Khan, Sreevats Goswami (WK), Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Abhishek Sharma, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman Khaleel Ahmed, Virat Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Mohammad Nabi, Shahbaz Nadeem, T. Natarajan, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Jagadeesha Suchith, Kedar Jadhav.

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