As Saud Shakeel holed out at the deep, Hardik Pandya’s jubilation knew no bounds. In his career, has done it all – bowling last over thrillers in T20s, providing key breakthroughs every now and then. During the 2023 World Cup, an injury he suffered showed how much it alters the balance of the side, even if it allowed Mohammed Shami to have a tournament to remember.
On Sunday, against Pakistan, Pandya showed he is as good as any frontline bowler, when he is fit and firing.
Coming into the tournament, Pandya knew he would have a huge role to play with the ball, particularly given India leaning towards a three-spinner strategy. With Jasprit Bumrah unavailable, and given Mohammed Shami’s ordinary returns in the middle overs and Harshit Rana’s inexperience, for India’s spinners to be effective they needed Pandya more than ever with the ball.
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A seamer who could provide them control when spinners went about their business at the other end.
On Sunday, India had to turn to Pandya a lot earlier than they expected — by the seventh over when Shami hobbled off the field holding his calf. Pandya didn’t have any time to loosen up in the middle with Babar Azam starting to press the gas. When he got the ball in hand, he predominantly struck to the off-stump line even when Babar creamed him for a couple of boundaries through the off. But off the eighth ball he bowled, Pandya dragged back the length – the ideal one to bowl here, and had Babar nick one to KL Rahul. And he was off.
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On a pitch where the spinners were supposed to keep Pakistan’s batting quiet, it was Pandya who did it all in his next four overs after the run-out of Imam-ul-Haq which saw Pakistan end the first powerplay at 52/2.
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Despite all the noise over their lack of intent in their opener at Karachi, during the hastily arranged session their former head coach Mudassar Nazar had reminded Pakistan how their old-school approach would come in handy in the conditions in Dubai. On a pitch where a total of 260 looked par, with two power-hitters, Salman Agha and Kushdil Shah slotted to bat at the death, preserving wickets in hand seemed a sensible ploy here. It is what their captain Muhammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel would go about enforcing.
Having consumed 42 dot balls in the first powerplay, despite having a spread out field, Rizwan and Shakeel would eat up 38 in the next 10 overs. Out of those 16 would be delivered by Pandya, who would not give Rizwan and Shakeel any chance to free their arms. Constantly hitting that back of a good length, he would keep landing it around the off-stump channel, getting the ball to seam in and out slightly.
Every now and then he would surprise them with cutters as Pakistan would score just 27 runs between overs 11 and 20, with only seven coming off Pandya’s four overs. His first spell read 6-0-18-1 out of which 26 were dot balls.
Given Pandya’s influence, Rohit would use Shami and Rana for second spells. It was a cat and mouse game now with the two Pakistan batsmen showing admirable resistance. With over-rate to catch up, Rohit would turn to its three spinners thereafter, but with just a slight turn on offer, Rizwan and Shakeel – who has a good game against spinners thanks to his long grind in domestic cricket — would play with minimum risks.
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For a brief period in the middle between 24.2 to 26.1 overs, Rizwan and Shakeel would show urgency hitting two boundaries each, but Rohit would rely on their exceptional fielders to put the pressure back. With left-right combination strong on the square and targeting the huge pockets to rotate strike, India would place their best fielders – Shreyas Iyer, Jadeja and Axar manning the boundaries on either side of the square. The Pakistan pair would make India spend every ounce of their energy under the heat with fielders charging in to cut down the angles and prevent twos into ones.
With Rizwan not prepared to go for lofted shots straight down the ground and using the sweep as an option, Rohit would position a fielder each at deep square-leg and deep mid-wicket. If runs had to come, it was only going to come at a premium.
Someone had to blink and it was Rizwan who did which led to Pakistan losing three wickets in the space of 19 deliveries. With mid-on up, he would step out to clear Axar, but only to miss the line completely as India got their first wicket in the middle-overs, having gone wicketless against Bangladesh.
In the next over, Pandya now in his second spell would get rid of Shakeel. Unlike his first spell, with a relatively softer ball, he was prepared to take pace off it and was rewarded by Shakeel who was early through the pull, which was mistimed to Axar at deep square-leg. Pandya would leap in joy. So did the Indian fans at the stands. He may have had just two wickets to show, but those 31 dot balls were like gold. An over later, when Jadeja broke through the defence of Tayyab Tahir, India had them at 165/5. Pakistan lost their way in the middle overs, only this time without Bumrah causing them any trouble.