VIDEO | Hardik Pandya’s bat flies to short leg as he misses the ball by a mile

After having an encouraging win against Kings XI Punjab in the last match, Mumbai Indians started the first match of the double-header against Kolkata Knight Riders very strongly, with Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis finishing the powerplay overs on 56/0. The hosts kept their run-rate over 10 till the tenth over before skipper Rohit Sharma was dismissed to the fan’s dismay.

With the score reading a decent 106/2, Hardik Pandya was sent into bat from the dugout with the hope that he would eventually take the target to over 200. However, though the run kept ticking, wickets kept on falling from the other end. By the 19th over, Mumbai had added just 60 more runs with the side needing a good 30-run over to reach the safe 200-run target.

Pandya had scored 26 off 16 balls and was visibly frustrated at the lack of ball he faced. Debutant Krishna was at the other end started he well with a dot and single with his first two balls. Pandya had to make something of it and fast, and he hit two consecutive boundaries to turn the good over into a half-decent one. 

The incident happened on the fifth ball of the last over as Pandya blindly went for the slog to Krishna’s low full toss. However, his hard swing missed the ball completely and the bat flew out of his hand to the square leg. Pandya, however, tried to get the bye run and narrowly escapes a run-out as Dinesh Karthik narrowly missed the stumps.