IND vs BAN 2024: Hardik Pandya Surpasses MS Dhoni's T20I Tally

Hardik Pandya produced a belligerent show with the bat against Bangladesh, hitting 32 off 19 balls to help India to a mammoth 221/9 in the second T20I on Wednesday. India eventually won the game by an emphatic margin of 86 runs.

Pandya slammed two fours and as many sixes during his stay at the crease. His power-packed show saw him surpass one of MS Dhoni’s massive tallies in T20I cricket.

Pandya and Dhoni had hit 116 fours each in T20I cricket ahead of last night’s fixture. Thanks to his two fours in the penultimate game of the series, the allrounder has now overtaken Dhoni’s T20I fours tally.

Pandya currently has 118 T20I fours to his name. He has walloped 83 maximums in the shortest format of the game as well while Dhoni has 52 T20I sixes under his belt.

Apart from his six-hitting prowess, Pandya made headlines thanks to a sensational catch against the second T20I played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

In the 14th over, bowled by Varun Chakravarthy, Rishad Hossein went aerial towards the long-on region. Spotting the opportunity, Pandya began a lengthy sprint from deep mid-wicket and showed sheer athleticism to complete a clean catch.

https://x.com/BCCI/status/ 1844052425134743945

While Pandya dazzled both in batting and fielding, the star all-rounder was not used as a bowler in the game. India’s T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav later revealed the plan was to check how others perform.

“I wanted to see what different bowlers can do in different situations (and to see if) they can give me the difficult overs. Sometimes Hardik won’t bowl, sometimes Washington won’t bowl. I wanted to see what the other guys had in store, really happy with it,” Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.

Chasing a 222-run target in the second T20I, Bangladesh managed 135 at the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs.

Nitish Kumar Reddy and Varun Chakravarthy picked up two wickets each for the hosts. Reddy was adjudged Player of the Match for his sublime all-round show.

Earlier in the match, he had produced a marvelous knock of 74 off 34 deliveries.