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Watch: Hardik Pandya gets hit for boundary, then cleans up Afghan batter next ball to unleash aggressive celebration
Hardik Pandya came with a terrific slower delivery to clean up Azmatullah Omarzai in the India vs Afghanistan World Cup 2023 match.
After having an indifferent day with the ball mainly due to an injury on the middle finger of his bowling hand in India's World Cup 2023 opener against Australia, Hardik Pandya made a strong comeback in the next outing against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitely Stadium in New Delhi. Hardik had hurt his hand while trying to stop a boundary off his own bowling very early into his spell against Australia. That hampered him from bowling more overs. He conceded 28 runs in the three overs that he bowled.
On Wednesday, however, the scenario was different. Before the start of play, Hardik told the broadcasters that still had some pain on his finger but it was much better than what it was on Sunday and that he was looking forward to putting up a better show with the ball. And so he did.
Coming in to bowl in the powerplay, Hardik first got the very important wicket of a well-set Rahmanullah Gurbaz (21) with one of his well-directed bouncers. Gurbaz was taken by surprise. The right-hander could not control his pull shot and was holed out in fine leg by Shardul Thakur, who took a good catch. It was a timely breakthrough for India as Afghanistan were just looking to break free.
India vs Afghanistan Live Score World Cup 2023
Hardik reserved his best for the latter half of the Afghanistan innings. The Afghan pair of Azmatullah Omarzai and Hashmatullah Shahidi were threatening to take the game away from India when Hardik came up with an absolute peach of a delivery to bring India back into the contest.
Afghanistan were 180 for 4 in 34 overs when Hardik came in to bowl. His 144km/h first delivery was clipped off the pads by Azmatulah for a boundary. The India all-rounder came back with a well-disguised slower one that pitched around the off stump, held its line and ended up hitting the top of the stump. Azhamtullah, who had played so well till then was completely foxed by the pace difference between the two deliveries. He had to walk back after scoring 62 off 69 balls and the 121-run stand for the fourth wicket was broken.
VIDEO: Hardik Pandya's ripper of a slower ball foxes Afghanistan's Azmatullah Omarzai
The importance of the wicket to India and Hardik could be gauged by the way the India all-rounder celebrated. He clutched his fists and let out a couple of loud roars to let the world know that he was back to his best as a medium pacer.
What made the occasion more special was the fact that it was Hardik's 30th birthday. He ended up with figures of 43 for 2 in his 7 overs.
At one stage Afghanistan were looking well placed to get close to 300 but after that strike from Hardik, India made a strong comeback in the match led by pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who stood out with his best World Cup bowling figures of 4-39. Afghanistan ended up with 272/8 after opting to bat first.
