India may have faced a stern challenge by Minnows Hong Kong in their opening clash which raised the questions about their selection and performance, but they have certainly bounced back against Pakistan. The men in blue were underdogs against Pakistan in the high profile encounter as the men in green were coming on back of 9 ODI winning streak in UAE from 2016. Out of form Bhuvneshwar Kumar, scalped the wickets of Fakhar Zaman and Imam Ul Haq to put Pakistan on back-foot. Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik put up a 82 run stand that brought Pakistan in the game, however, Kuldeep Yadav cleaned up Azam that brought captain Sarfraz Ahmed to the crease.
Hardik Pandya came to bowl the 18th over of the match but he got down immediately after bowling a bowl. He suffered a lower back injury which meant that he left the field on stretcher.
Manish Pandey replaced him as the substitute fielder and the Karnataka batsman was up for a miracle today.
In the 25th over of the match, Kedar Jadhav looped a ball to Pakistan captain Sarfraz who stroked it to the deep mid wicket fielder. The ball was clearly crossing the boundary line but Manish Pandey brought his heroics in the action and pounched on the catch. It was a running catch which got him dis-balanced that forced him to cross the boundary line. He brought his mind power into action and threw the ball in the air and finally came back to pull-off a stunner.
Here’s the video
— Gentlemen’s Game (@DRVcricket) September 19, 2018
Pakistan failed to get the right momentum throughout the innings and got bundled out on 162 runs.
