Hardik Pandya was the hero in Cuttack where India outclassed South Africa in the first of the five-match T20I series by over a hundred-run margin. Pandya was the best batter in the match. But in the second match, he can get a major record. He will be the first Indian cricketer to do so in the format.
Team India will play the second match of the series at the Maharaja Yadavendra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur. Suryakumar Yadav and company will look to win this match and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match T20 series. Team India achieved a resounding victory in the Cuttack T20I, in which Hardik Pandya performed brilliantly.
Hardik Pandya can achieve the 100th mark
In the first match of the series, played in Cuttack, Team India defeated South Africa by 101 runs. In this match, Hardik Pandya played an unbeaten inning of 59 runs, which included 4 sixes and 6 fours. Pandya took one wicket while bowling. He has 99 wickets in T20 Internationals, and with a wicket in the second match, he will complete a century of wickets. Hardik Pandya has scored 1,919 runs in this format so far. If he takes one wicket, he will become the first Indian player to score 1000 runs and take 100 wickets.
Till now only 4 cricketers in world cricket have been able to achieve this feat. Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan is at the top of this list. Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi, Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza and Malaysia’s Virandeep Singh have also achieved this feat. Shakib has scored 2,551 runs and taken 149 wickets in 129 T20 matches for Bangladesh. Mohammad Nabi has scored 2,417 runs in 145 matches and has taken 104 wickets. Sikandar Raza has 102 wickets besides 2,883 runs. Virandeep has scored 3,115 runs and taken 107 wickets.
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With just one wicket, Hardik Pandya will join Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah in the elite list. Both bowlers have taken at least 100 T20 wickets for India. Bumrah achieved this feat in the Cuttack T20. Bumrah has 101 wickets, while Arshdeep Singh has 107.
India’s T20I squad
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Tilak Verma, Shivam Dubey, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar.










