It was yet another hard time for the young Indian batter Prithvi Shaw as he couldn’t get a match time even after getting selected for the T20I squad of India. The men in blue under the leadership of Hardik Pandya crushed New Zealand by a massive margin of 168 runs in the third and last of the three-match T20I series to win the series by 2-1.
Later on, Hardik Pandya was handed over the trophy by Indian Cricket Board president Roger Binny and secretary Jay Shah. But subsequently, what Hardik did was something that attracted the eyeballs of cricket fans and also raised a few eyebrows. Just after collecting the trophy, Hardik went towards his team and handed over the trophy to none other than the guy who was not even the part of playing XI in the entire series, Prithvi Shaw.
The Indian cricket fans also came up with a lot of divided reactions on the same as soon as the video of this incident started making rounds on social media.
Here’s the video of when Hardik Pandya handed over the trophy to Prithvi Shaw:
Yet another trophy🏆 to India's 🇮🇳 trophy cabinet!!
— CricketGully (@thecricketgully) February 1, 2023
Hardik Pandya handing it over to Prithvi Shaw!!#INDvsNZ3rdT20#INDvNZ#HardikPandya𓃵pic.twitter.com/LByphTRRVc
Here’s how fans reacted:
Ye badhiya hai puri series khilao mat aur fir trophy handover kar do. Same thing happened with KS bharat few days back.
— Akarshit mishra (@Akarshit194) February 1, 2023
What a way to troll someone 🥲
— Pratik Parmar (@perfectprtk) February 1, 2023
Mockery of talent
— H!t@n$hu (@HitanshuHp) February 1, 2023
What's the point of it?
— ShivAm ममगाईं (@Shiv29_Vish) February 1, 2023
He must be feeling that yes they won but he isn't the real winner of that trophy.
He should have got to play the final t20 match so that he could contribute to the score and proudly lifted the trophy.
Should have made him play pic.twitter.com/xYRGrP7qxW
— Ravindra Shukla (@Ravindr40648685) February 2, 2023
He should hand him a spot in the team instead 😬
— Ankur Lahoty, IIS (@Ankur_IIS) February 2, 2023
He was skipper of Shubman in U19.
— Advocate Drishti Thakkar (@Populardrishti) February 1, 2023
He also got chance before shubman in that Aus tour, but failed in first 2 tests.
Prithvi Shaw won the world cup and Hardik is handing over the bilateral series trophy to him. Funny. #INDvsNZ3rdT20
— Girish (@crazygireesh8) February 1, 2023
Achha c***ya banaya ja rha h isko jitna faltu ka mauka BKL Rahul, rishab pant , ishan kishen in sab ko Mila h uska 25% bhi isse ni Mila hai .. BCCI aur team management ka yahi attitude ICC tournament me inhe aukat pata chal jata hai
— Sumit kumar (@skrules222) February 1, 2023
Same energy pic.twitter.com/E3KEDd5BAg
— राहुल रघुवंशी (@raone4016) February 1, 2023
Pruthvi shaw be like : pic.twitter.com/dJBgkM0J82
— Venkat Sainath (@pvsn2002) February 1, 2023
No batting given, made to field all day and finally asked to carry the trophy 😭https://t.co/k5yH5kUxBx
— Komred Kapitalist (@mytweetisthis) February 2, 2023
Talking about the action of the third match of the T20I series in Ahmedabad, the hosts completely dominated and outplayed the Kiwis. Indian skipper won the flip of the coin and decided to bat first which was provided absolutely right by the star Indian batting sensation Shubman Gill. He smashed a swashbuckling century of 126 runs off just 63 balls 12 boundaries and seven sixes to his name.
Apart from Gill, middle-order batter Rahul Tripathi also played a quick knock of 44 runs off just 22 balls with four boundaries and three sixes to his name. Riding on these knocks, the Indian posted a massive total of 234 runs for the loss of four wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
While defending this target, the Indian bowlers completely terrorized the Kiwi batting lineup and bundled them up only on the score of 66 runs in 12.1 overs to register a historic win by 168 runs.
Notably, it is also the biggest win in the history of T20I cricket against any full-time member or a Test-playing nation.