On Sunday, Vadodara based All rounder Hardik Pandya shines in IPL’s T20 match. Hardik hit 5 sixes and 1 four for Baroda against Delhi in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 game.
The bowler to suffer at the hands of Pandya was medium paceman Akash Sudan. The left-armer, playing in only his 2nd T20 game, was ransacked for 39 runs in the 19th over of the match. Pandya took 34 runs off him while there were 4 byes and 1 noball. The runs – 39 in 1 over is the most scored in the history of any form of T20 cricket. The previous best was 38 by New Zealand’s Scott Styris, for Sussex against Gloucestershire, in England, in 2012. Despite Pandya’s record-setting batting exploits, Baroda were defeated by Dehli by 5 wickets with 3 balls to spare. Pandya blasted a 51-ball 81 (5×4, 6×6). Baroda scored 153/6 in 20 overs. In reply, Delhi chased the target successfully – 156/5 in 19.3 overs. Sudan had figures of 2/47 in 4 overs.
Hardik was last month included in the Indian Twenty20 squad to tour Australia, belatedly celebrated the call-up in a big way as he smashed (January 10). At the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara, the 22-year-old Pandya almost joined a select few of batsmen to blasted 6 sixes in an over. Only Sir Garfield Sobers (in the year 1968), Ravi Shastri (1985), Herschelle Gibbs (2007), Yuvraj Singh (2007) and Alex Hales (2015) have managed this rare feat. Pandya was nearly there but missed out.
