During the third T20I between India and the West Indies, the South African legend gave his opinion on the entire affair in a fairly direct manner.
India’s skipper Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma became themselves in a minor social media squabble following their team’s third T20I victory over the West Indies on Tuesday. Tilak, who was batting on 49, was at the non-striker’s end when India only needed 2 runs to win from 14 deliveries; Hardik, facing Rovman Powell, hit a six off the last delivery of the over to win the game, angering fans on social media. The Indian captain was criticised by many users for not letting Tilak reach his fifty-first run.
The 20-year-old left-hander has been India’s most reliable hitter so far in the series, and the fact that he made his series debut makes his efforts all the more impressive. Tilak scored 39 and 51 points, respectively, in the first and second T20Is to lead India in scoring. In the third game, he had no qualms about taking second place to an on-song Suryakumar Yadav because India needed a partnership to recover from early blows and rebuild their innings.
In fact, as India’s run chase came to a conclusion, Hardik was overheard asking Tilak to stick it out until the end, which many on the internet thought made the Indian captain’s six even stranger. In fact, Aakash Chopra, a former India opener, asserted in a YouTube video that the captain should have let Tilak to reach the milestone because there were no Net Run Rate (NRR) calculations in effect.
When broadcaster Harsha Bhogle tweeted about the topic during the debate, former South African captain AB de Villiers responded with some clarity. The tweet said, “I find the conversation surrounding Tilak Varma missing out on a 50 puzzling. It is not a landmark; in T20 cricket, the only notable achievements are centuries, which are uncommon. In team sports, we are far too fixated on individual success. I disagree that T20 cricket individual stats should include 50s. It doesn’t matter how many runs you make as long as they are made swiftly enough (avg and SR).
De Villiers only offered a simple “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Finally, someone has said it.
The fourth and fifth Twenty20 Internationals of the series will be played at Lauderhill, Florida, where the action will now shift. India now has a 1-2 deficit.
