Krunal Pandya Dedicate 1st ODI Match to His Father

 

The News Cover: The 3-match ODI series between India & England is being held in Pune at the MCA stadium. On 23rd March 2021, at the 1st match, England's captain won the toss and opted to bowl. The Indian team played very well and scored 317/5. However, England was unable to reach the target. They were all out & lost by 66 runs. Shikhar Dhawan put up a wonderful performance scoring 98 runs and was two runs short of a century. This was Krunal Pandya's maiden ODI. 

Prior to the match, he was presented the ODI cap by Hardik Pandya as it was his debut match. The brothers embraced each other after which they went to play. Krunal Pandya & KL Rahul were batting at a tough stage when India was in trouble at 205/5 with less than 10 overs remaining. Krunal and Rahul took charge and put on an unbeaten 112-run stand. 

Krunal became the fastest batsman to score a half-century in 26 deliveries on his ODI debut. Krunal scored a total of 58 runs off 31 balls laced with seven 4's and two 6's. After the match, when commentators called him, overcome with emotion he said, "This was my first ODI but my father was not present to see this. I have dedicated this match as a gift to him." However, he was unable to talk more and walked away. His brother Hardik Pandya then hugged and consoled him. 

Their father had passed away in January 2021. When it was England's turn to bat, they lost many wickets to Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur. They took 4 & 3 wickets respectively. England was all out at 251 runs, thereby securing India's victory.