South African legend impressed with Hardik Pandya's incredible stroke play

Hardik Pandya came to Team India‘s rescue with an incredible knock of 93 off 95 balls. The all-rounder’s inning helped them get a decent total. With the top four batsmen collapsing for a mere 57 runs, the pressure was all on Cheteshwar Pujara. But Vernon Philander’s outstanding delivery right after lunch sent Pujara back to the pavilion, which brought the all-rounder to the crease.

Hardik scored his second half-century at a time when the team needed the most. He partnered with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and scored 99 valuable runs for the 7th wicket. Philander, and, Kagiso Rabada picked three wickets each while Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel scalped two each. Fiery pace bowling from the Proteas pacers resulted in the Indian batsmen getting all-out for 209.

Bhuvneshwar provided much-needed support to his more accomplished batting partner. He scored 25 playing 86 balls before losing his wicket to Morkel. Hardik’s boundaries helped him maintain an excellent scoring rate. If it wasn’t for Pandya’s aggressive batting, India’s total would have been humiliating.

Pollock impressed with the knock

The all-rounder’s inning not only took India to a decent total but also impressed one and all. South African legend, Graeme Pollock seems pretty much impressed with the youngster’s aggressive batting.

His ability to attack the best pace attack earned him praises from the legend. His knock included 14 fours and one six. “I liked Pandya’s aggression and his boundary-hitting. You needed someone who could take on an attack like that and this kid did wonderfully well. They bowled a lot of short balls to him and he took them on,” the former left-handed batsman was quoted as saying by Mid-Day.

With Dale out of the tests, India can feel some relief: Graeme Pollock

The former Protean felt that the Indian batting order revolves around the skipper, Virat Kohli. He also said that India is a decent batting side and hoped for no more batting collapses in the coming games.

“Look, with Dale Steyn not going to be around (out due to a heel injury), the Indian team can feel some relief, but the other three pacers (Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, and Kagiso Rabada) are very formidable and tall. The Indians will have to play well to get anywhere in this series. That is not to say that they are incapable,” Pollock stated.

“India has a very balanced team and they have played some wonderful cricket over the last two years, but they will encounter some challenging tracks in Centurion and Johannesburg. It generally rains during this time, so India could encounter some fresh wickets,” he added.

Having featured in 23 Test matches for South Africa, Graeme Pollock scored well over 2000 runs at an average of 61. He also felt that India have decent chance of taking the game away from the home side, despite a 77-run lead at the end of Day 3.

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