Hardik Pandya leaves ICC stunned with his ramp shot against England

The first T20 International of the five-match series against England at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium didn’t end on a good note for the hosts as they were at the receiving end of a humiliating defeat by 8 wickets. In the match, it was the batting unit that disappointed the most as the batsmen failed to show some courage and couldn’t survive against England’s fierce bowling line-up to put up a decent total on the board. 

Though the fans were left disappointed with the Indian batsmen, a few middle-order batters including Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya entertained the fans by producing some unbelievable shots from their willow in the short time they could survive in the middle.

While Pant had amazed the viewers by smashing a reverse sweep off seamer Jofra Archer, Hardik Pandya left all stunned by scoring a boundary off all-rounder Ben Stokes despite not looking at the ball. Hardik was all set to convert the 15th over into a big over as he smashed a six off Stokes followed by a ramp shot to collect four more runs. Stokes kept the delivery short and Hardik without even looking at the ball kept his bat at the right position and guided the ball to the fence by working on its pace.

With the spectacular shot, Hardik also mesmerized the International Cricket Council (ICC) as they took to their official Twitter handle to ask the fans to name the shot.

ICC tweets on Hardik Pandya’s spectacular shot and here’s how fans reacted

The Sofa

— Andy Jackson (@jacobskreek) March 12, 2021

The Matrix shot 😄

— Sudheesh Suresh (@sudhe_sk) March 12, 2021

His back is almost parallel to ground so- PARALLEL GROUND SHOT

— Saket Jha (@IamSaketJha) March 12, 2021

The Lean Back

— Dalubuhle (@dalutapiwa) March 12, 2021

Outstanding short

— Mo Kaif Khan (@MoKaifK14235916) March 13, 2021

This is pandya skoop😅

— Deba Sarkar (@DebaSar30027226) March 13, 2021

Me : How to impress Endians when they are losing the match?
Le Hardik : pic.twitter.com/lZwf7H5TG3

— 𝔐𝔲𝔥𝔞𝔪𝔪𝔞𝔡 𝔘𝔰𝔪𝔞𝔫 𝔄𝔰𝔥𝔯𝔞𝔣 (@ca_usmanashraf) March 12, 2021

Hardikcut

— VIKESH RAJPUT (@vikesh6454) March 13, 2021

pic.twitter.com/T2iLGrSxWH

— Mridul Sharma (@Mridul__sh) March 13, 2021

England wins the first T20 International by 8 wickets

Eoin Morgan won the toss and invited India to bat first. The first innings witnessed a horrific collapse of the batting line-up as India could manage only 124 runs on the board in their 20 overs. Shreyas Iyer, who came to bat at no-5, was the only among the Indian camp to show some responsibility by playing a sublime knock of 67 runs off 48 deliveries.

In reply to India’s 124, England presented a stunning show as they completed the target within 15.3 overs with opening batsman Jason Roy scoring 48 runs off 32 deliveries.