The sixth match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad proved to be an absolute thriller. Thanks to their superb composure and brilliant bowling at the death, RCB were able to pocket a game that seemed out of their hands for most of its duration.
Following an early dismissal of Wriddhiman Saha, David Warner and Manish Pandey stabilized the innings and were on the verge of setting up an easy chase for SRH. While Warner scored 54 runs from 37 deliveries thanks to seven fours and a six, Manish Pandey struggled to keep up with the run rate once again, following a similar pattern against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Criticizing Manish Pandey’s approach, Ashish Nehra suggested that his inability to keep up with pressure is the reason behind his inconsistent presence in the national squad. The former pace bowler believes that the likes of Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav will always be ahead of Pandey because of their ability to adapt to the situation.
“And that’s why Manish Pandey failed to cement his place in the Indian team. You look when he made his debut, and then the likes of Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav came and went far ahead. Because these players are much better at adapting to the pressure and that’s why they leapfrogged Pandey,” said Nehra.
Manish Pandey fell to Shahbaz Ahmed in the 17th over which ended up being the turning point of the match. Shahbaz Ahmed also got rid of Jonny Bairstow and Abdul Samad in the same over to completely derail Sunrisers Hyderabad’s run-chase.
Ashish Nehra seemed unimpressed by the performances of the middle-order batsmen who he thought batted like tail-enders against Shahbaz Ahmed and the rest.
“Virat Kohli deployed his only left-arm spinner at the right time. But the way SRH batters – Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, and Abdul Samad got out, it didn’t seem like proper batters are getting out. They appeared to be losing wickets like tailenders, especially Pandey,” Ashish Nehra told Cricbuzz.
“When the players at positions 9, 10, 11 don’t have many options against moving deliveries, they target only mid-wicket and long on. And that’s a major difference. When you are in a good form and know how to play under pressure, you have options to hit those away going deliveries towards mid-off or cover,” he added.
