Former India cricketer's ‘can fly low-on-fuel plane with faulty engine’ tweet on Hardik Pandya goes viral

India vs South Africa: Amit Mishra said Hardik Pandya was "so lucky" that he could have flown a plane on low fuel and faulty engine in a thunderstorm and yet land it safely.

Former India cricketer Amit Mishra came up with a hilarious tweet to describe Hardik Pandya's cameo in the 3rd T20I against South Africa at the ACA-VDCA stadium at Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. Hardik was dropped by David Miller, generally one of the safest fielders in the South African unit, when the India all-rounder had just come in to bat. In the third ball of the 15th over, left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi tossed one up wide outside the off stump, Hardik went for the big one but ended up slicing it to long-off where Miller failed to hold on to the catch. Hardik was only on 1 at that time. The all-rounder managed to make an important contribution of 31 not out to help India post 179 for 5 in their 20 overs.

India's Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel during the third Twenty20 cricket match between India and South Africa in Visakhapatnam, India. (AP)

The catch was not the only instance when Hardik had the rub of the green going his way on Tuesday. The right-hander got a couple of streaky boundaries which could well have resulted in his wicket on another day.

Mishra said Hardik was "so lucky" that he could have flown a plane on low fuel and faulty engine in a thunderstorm and yet land it safely.

"Hardik Pandya is so lucky today that he can fly a low-on-fuel plane, with a faulty engine, in a thunderstorm and yet can land it safely to the destination," Mishra tweeted.

Yuzvendra Chahal (3/20) and Harshal Patel (4/25) led the way with the ball after sizzling half-centuries from Ruturaj Gaikwad (57) and Ishan Kishan (54) powered India to 179 for five.

The bowlers came good after opener Gaikwad turned things around with a scintillating knock and Ishan scored his second fifty of the series.

Under the scanner for his patchy form of late, Gaikwad hit two maximums and seven fours in his 35-ball knock, and Ishan too scored his runs in 35 balls after being asked to take first strike.

Defending the total, skipper Rishabh Pant introduced the spinners early and Axar Patel produced the first breakthrough with a fuller delivery as Temba Bavuma (8) holed out to Avesh Khan in the 4th over.

Chahal was rewarded for bowling quick as he got extra bounce from the wicket to get the better of Rassie van der Dussen (1), Dwaine Pretorius (20) and Heinrich Klassen (29).

Harshal mixed his deliveries well to first remove Reeza Hendricks (23) and David Miller (3) and then returned to finish things off with the wickets of Kagiso Rabada (9) and Tabraiz Shamsi (0) as South Africa were bundled out for 131.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/21) too bowled with a lot of heart.

Earlier, Gaikwad and Ishan hit two sixes each and shared 12 boundaries to set the platform but South Africa tightened the screws in the second half to keep India inside 180.