IPL 2022: Titans' Hardik Pandya seen yelling at Mohammad Shami for poor performance

The mood in the cricket stadium went sour when Gujarat Titans skipper lashed out against his own teammate over a small mistake on Monday’s match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, April 11, 2022. captain Hardik Pandya yelled at Mohammad Shami for having poor performances in the 21st game of the Indian Premier League 2022. Shami’s failure to catch a ball is one of the reasons why GT earned their first loss in the T20 tournament.

The problem starts at the 13 overs of the second innings when SRH's Kane Williamson bats. He spectacularly scored sixes twice in a row on Pandya’s second and third ball in a game held at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai.

Then came a turning point for the Sunrisers on the final ball bowled by the Gujarat skipper. The ball went to a deep third man where Shami could have caught it but didn’t. He chose to move back and try to catch but failed as he reacted too late.

Pandya was not happy with Shami’s failure and was seen yelling unsavory words toward his teammate. The fans were not happy with his burst of attitude and took their displeasure online.

Support

Even when fans dislike the act, the all-rounder skipper receives support from Graeme Swann and Matthew Hayden.

“I will tell you what we shouldn’t do though. We shouldn’t look at it and say all of a sudden Hardik is not a good captain. The fact that they did not score enough runs lost them the game, not Hardik Pandya’s He shuffled his packs quite well but of course, your nerves get a bit fried as a skipper or a bowler (in tensed situations). It was not Hardik’s captaincy but the lack of runs that cost them”, Swann told Star Sports.

Hayden also voiced his support for Captain Pandya and said Shami made no effort.

“I reckon this was a really pivotal moment in the match, he was bowling at good speed. Mohammed Shami was on the boundary and he made no effort. In fact, he retreated back to the boundary I won’t say he avoided the catch necessarily”, Hayden added.

“He really needed to go harder inside the boundary. When you are not defending much, it’s about really working hard for your mates, and taking the effort catches and make the plays. Be it run-out or catches or just assists, in general, to stop a batter from scoring boundaries.”

The Match

The game started when SRH decided to bowl in the first innings thus the Titans batted first. Gujarat scored greatly at 162 runs in 20 overs. Skipper Pandya scored the highest with a half-century off 42 balls and no dismissal. Abhinav Manohar followed him at 35 runs off 21 balls and Matthew Wade with 19 runs off 19 balls.

The Sunrisers then batted in the second innings and won by 8 wickets and 5 balls left. The top scorer of the match was Kane Williamson who scored 57 runs off 46 balls. Abhishek Sharma followed with 42 runs off 32 balls and Nicholas Pooran with 34 runs no out 18 balls.