Image Source- AFP
It was one of those games where the final score might
not fully reflect the contribution that Hardik Pandya made with the ball to the
outcome. His statistics read 5-0-14-1, which, although impressive, were not
quite the blockbuster performances you saw from left-arm spinners Dunith
Wellalage (5-40) and Kuldeep Yadav (4-43), both of whom are 20 years old.
On a surface where the ball was gripping, turning
square, occasionally keeping a little low, and generally playing up and down
enough to put batters between the devil and the deep blue sea, they yet made an
enduring impression on India’s valiant defence of 214.
Second, you couldn’t help but believe that it’s
important to try to play your shots before a ball has your name on it when you
see spinners come on and challenge both edges of the bat, as Wellalage did by
just staying to a wicket-to-wicket line and varied his flight and angles.
Watching how hitters from both sides handled this conundrum was fascinating.
And it was in the midst of this that Hardik really distinguished himself with
his ferocity and intensity—a compliment that, in the past, had primarily been reserved
for his batting and, to a significant part, his captaincy.
It’s no secret that India has been waiting for Hardik
to bowl in this way for a while and has tried everything to achieve it, even
wrapping him in cotton wool for this purpose. As you witnessed on Tuesday when
India fielded Axar Patel in addition to Kuldeep and Ravindra Jadeja as a third
specialist spinner, this undoubtedly gives India flexibility in the selection
process. Although the conditions did favour spin, India is in a position to
consider flexibility and batting depth and have Hardik play the role of a third
seamer rather than a bits-and-pieces bowler who can only keep an end up.
When it appeared for a time as though India was just
running out of gas when Dhananjaya de Silva and Wellalage threatened a
jailbreak, Hardik’s intensity truly helped India. It’s not complicated, but on
these roaring turners, the ones that don’t turn are almost always more
dangerous. However, these pitches have a tendency to overexcite spinners, as it
appeared to be with Jadeja and Axar for a while.
At this point, Hardik came in and delivered a furious
spell in which each ball appeared to have the batter’s name on it. He did it
all with a charming smirk that indicated he knew he was in top gear: hard
lengths, nip off the pitch, bounce, landing it with an upright seam to have the
batsman nicking. All of these combinations were combined with lethal precision.
He regularly hit 140 kph, hit the ball high off the bat, and had the lower
order dancing to his beat.
He gave the batsmen a good work over by immediately
assessing the situation and delivering a telling spell in which he slowly
gnawed at them rather than blasting them with thunderbolts, which eventually
led them to believe that taking a respectable risk against the spinners was
worthwhile. When Dhananjaya attempted to strike Jadeja against the turn but was
stopped at mid-on, this ultimately proved to be his downfall. After four overs,
the contest was all but over.
With the World Cup less than a month away, it couldn’t
have been shaping up any better for him, and India.