IPL 2021: Virender Sehwag reveals WHY Manish Pandey couldn’t win the game for SRH

Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey remained unbeaten on 61 off 44 balls but SRH failed to chase down the 188-run target by 10 runs. Virender Sehwag reckoned the biggest drawback was that Manish Pandey could not find the boundaries in the death overs.

Sunrisers Hyderabad's Manish Pandey en route to scoring 61 against Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL 2021 clash. (Photo: Sunrisers Hyderabad)

Former India opener Virender Sehwag is someone who always talks straight. On Sunday (April 11) night, Sehwag explained why Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman Manish Pandey wasn’t able to guide his team to victory against Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Karnataka batsman Pandey remained unbeaten on 61 off 44 balls but SRH failed to chase down the 188-run target by 10 runs. Sehwag reckoned the biggest drawback was that Manish Pandey could not find the boundaries in the death overs allowing the run rate to spike up. Sehwag believes that had he got the boundaries, SRH should have got over the line.

“Pandey couldn’t hit a boundary in the last three overs he batted against KKR. That lone six came off the last ball when the match was over. He had an important role play. He already had faced the pressure and was set. Had he taken the initiative to smash a few boundaries, SRH wouldn’t have lost the game by 10 runs,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

Sehwag also tweeted about teams having ‘stat padding batsmen’ , saying that such teams will struggle in IPL.

Teams that will have stat padding batsmen end up batting long overs without changing gears quickly will struggle. Depriving hitters and finishers by leaving very less balls and making it very difficult. Happened last year, and such teams will struggle always #IPL

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) April 11, 2021

Earlier, opener Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) hit fluent half-centuries to script Kolkata Knight Riders’ comfortable 10-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad. KKR has got their campaign off to a winning start and would like to hold on to the momentum going ahead.

“It happens sometimes that you are a set batsman but you don’t get the balls to hit. I think the same thing had happened with Manish Pandey. He didn’t get any ball in his radar and hence, he couldn’t hit a six,” he added.