After the match, Hardik Pandya didn't mince his words while speaking on no-balls bowled by Arshdeep Singh.
Hardik Pandya admitted that his team committed some simple mistakes in the second T20I against Sri Lanka at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. Sri Lanka leveled the series at 1-1 after dominating all three facets of the game. The Men in Blue had a disappointing night at the office, bowling 7 no-balls, five of which were bowled by Arshdeep Singh.
India made two changes to their playing XI, with Rahul Tripathi and Arshdeep Singh replacing Sanju Samson and Harshal Patel, but it did not go well. Arshdeep bowled a hat-trick of no-balls in his opening over of the match, then returned to the attack to bowl the penultimate over, where he bowled two more no-balls. He gave up 37 runs in two overs.
Pandya admitted that Sri Lanka outclassed the hosts in both powerplays as India didn’t get their basics right.
“Both bowling and batting - powerplay hurt us. We made basic errors which we shouldn’t do at this level. Learning should be the basics we can control. You can have a bad day but shouldn’t be going away from basics," Pandya said in the post-match presentation.
The Indian captain also discussed Arshdeep's bad day at work and was brutally honest in his appraisal of the no-ball bowled by the left-arm bowler.
“In this situation, it’s very difficult. In past as well he’s bowled no-balls. As a captain, I believe you can’t give away freebies. Going for runs is fine but no balls aren’t. Not blaming but he (Arshdeep) needs to go back and make sure these basic errors don’t happen at this level. It’s not about blaming or to be too hard on him but no ball is a crime," he added.
Earlier, taking to Twitter during the 2nd T20I between India and Sri Lanka, Karthik explained why Arshdeep failed to make an impact in his comeback match at Pune. “You've got to feel for Arshdeep Singh, just lack of match practice. It's never easy,” Karthik said in his tweet.
Arshdeep was struggling to find his rhythm and was brought back to bowl the 19th over. He overstepped twice in his last over. Arshdeep's 4th no-ball proved to be costly as he got the wicket of Dasun Shanaka on that delivery. But the decision had to be reversed. The Sri Lanka captain remained unbeaten on 56 off 22 and the visiting team put up a huge total of 206/6 on the board.
India finished with 190 runs courtesy to half-centuries from Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel, as well as a cameo from Shivam Mavi. They fell short in the end, losing by 16 runs. The third and final T20I of the series will be played on January 7 at Rajkot.
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