Cricket has never seen superstars like Indian superstars in the modern era, the likes of Hardik Pandya and Shubman Gill commanding the kind of influence some past legends would have killed for. However, Sai Kishore is way too experienced to be intimidated, as he let the MI skipper know on Sunday.
Mumbai Indians found themselves teetering in a daunting chase of 197 against the Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on a two-paced track with plenty in it for the bowlers. Tilak Varma gave the visitors a base to work with with a steady knock of 39 while SUryakumar Yadav played aggressor to keep the required rate in check but by the time Hardik Pandya came in, the equation already read 89 required off the final seven overs. It did not help that the skipper himself found his going difficult and Sai Kishore was not afraid to rub the fact right in his face.
Having just faced four balls in the innings, Hardik came up against Sai in the 15th over with the left-arm spinner set to finish his quota for the day. The veteran began with two dot balls and albeit his counterpart managed a riposte with a boundary off the legs, Sai came back well with a looped up delivery on length. Hardik charged down the deck hoping to go big but was foiled by Sai’s execution and ended up simply defending the ball back to the 28-year-old who pickinf up the Kookaburra and pretended to sling it at the stumps. Hardik was in no mood to take any sledging and he dismissively waved away Sai asking him to return to the mark but the bowler was equal to the contest as he maintained eye contact while mockingly rubbing his palm across the pitch before turning around. It was enough to trigger Hardik to walk towards Sai and have a word, yet nothing gave as Sai stood still as a tree to maintain authority over the situation.
Twitterati could not have asked anything more.
What would have happened?
Huge fight!
Big fight!
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Hardik tu kitna b bada ban ja end me tu rahega to baroda ka chapri hi
— rovi beer (@highon_beer) March 29, 2025
Moye moye!
LOL! No!
What?
