VIDEO | Bat and ball go for a fly in different direction as Hardik Pandya dismissed in hapless manner
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Bat slipping away from the batsman’s hand is not a new thing, but the way Hardik Pandya’s bat and the ball went for a fly, it made for perfect drama. He was only a spectator as his bat left his hand after he got a top-edge on it, in exactly the opposite direction of the ball, to end his innings.
It seems like the lady luck had forgotten Hardik completely. As many as three catches were dropped off his bowling and a countless number of fours have been allowed by Indian fielders to give his bowling figures a terrible look. Just when he could reverse that, he was dismissed in a terrible manner which summed off his outing in Hamilton today.
On the penultimate ball of the 15th over, Scott Kuggeleijn bowled a 145 kph back of length delivery to catch the Indian all-rounder on the shuffle. Hardik was looking to target the short mid-boundary to get a maximum, but he was cramped up altogether and due to the lack of room, he failed to pull that perfectly.
To add to his misery, he was not in the perfect control of the bat too as it left his hand in the last moment and he got a top-edge on it. While the ball went high over extra cover, the bat was equally high in the air and landed behind the stumps. No one was injured with the bat, but Kane Williamson was alert enough to be at extra cover to grab the catch to end Hardik's innings.
