After playing a ferocious knock in 1st innings of 3rd T20I in front of West Indies bowlers, Venkatesh Iyer made the life of opponent batters tough while bowling in the 2nd innings of the game. While filling in for injured Deepak Chahar, Iyer grabbed the most of his opportunity by dismissing West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard in the 9th over of the match, followed by another dismissal of quality all-rounder Jason Holder in the 11th over of the game.
In the span of 11-balls, Venkatesh Iyer took 2 of the most crucial wickets reducing the West Indies from 82-4 to 87-5. Earlier, Deepak Chahar blew away West Indies’ top order by dismissing Kyle Mayers and Shai Hope 1st and 3rd over, respectively. While Harshal Patel too joined the party by dismissing inform Rovman Powell (25 off 14) in the 7th over and later hunting down Roston Chase (12 off 7) in 12th over.
However, Venkatesh Iyer’s all-around performance grabbed lot of attention on social media as the batting all-rounder carried on his form from the previous game and notched a crucial partnership with Suryakumar Yadav. The duo added a 91 runs on board and rescued the side from batting collapse.
Iyer’s 35* off 19 had four boundaries and two sixes followed by his 2 wickets led to Twitter being flooded with appreciation posts around him. His spectacular all-round performance also led to netizens trolling Hardik Pandya, whose place the all-rounder has taken in the side right now. There were some hilarious memes on internet with people suggesting that Hardik might be a worried man on Sunday.
Check out the best reactions:
Hardik Pandya has six knocks of SR > 180 (min 10 balls faced) in T20Is.
In five innings (min 10 balls), Venkatesh Iyer already has three.
Not a slight on Hardik, just shows Venky has been mighty impressive.#INDvWI
— Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN) February 20, 2022
Venkatesh iyer to hardik pandya ?? pic.twitter.com/ztt78SFlsp
— RR : FOREVER (@RRFAN111) February 20, 2022
Now Venkatesh Iyer is picking wickets as well. More all-round performances and it will be very difficult for Hardik to make a comeback here. #INDvWI
— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket) February 20, 2022
Venkatesh Iyer all rounder performance in 3rd T20 ,perfect replacement for hardik
Hardik be like ? pic.twitter.com/joKpUIGlpR
— Shubham Jain (@Shubham09273730) February 20, 2022
Pandya brothers watching venktesh iyer game:#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/lMzz191QYX
— Prayag (@theprayagtiwari) February 20, 2022
Hardik Pandya after seeing Venkatesh Iyer's performance in this series.#INDvsWI pic.twitter.com/CrItR8Cdrh
— Kuldeep Singh Chouhan?? (@Kuldeep66252281) February 20, 2022
https://twitter.com/carnot__engine/status/1495435358544474112
Hardik Pandya after seeing Venkatesh Iyer contributing to the team with both bat and ball#INDvsWI#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/s62OVqokiK
— Anant Govil ?? (@AnantGovil) February 20, 2022
Officially worried for Hardik Pandya while being happy for Venkatesh Iyer.
— Jaanvi? (@ThatCric8Girl) February 20, 2022
Venkatesh Iyer, What an asset for Team India.#VenkateshIyer #INDvWI #Cricket pic.twitter.com/ObS7vEKBSC
— ProBatsman (@probatsman) February 20, 2022
Venkatesh Iyer on bowling : pic.twitter.com/BGh8eWwLXe
— Mazakiya ShortLeg (@MShortleg) February 20, 2022
Hardik Pandya after seeing Venkatesh Iyer contributing to the team with both bat and ball#INDvsWI#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/s62OVqokiK
— Anant Govil ?? (@AnantGovil) February 20, 2022
Talking about the match, West Indies fell short by 17 runs on the day as India sealed the T20I series 3-0 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
