The Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s hero with the bat Krunal Pandya shared a photo of the bruise on his stomach after the game captioning, "Some scars are proof that it was worth fighting for”. The injury happened in the 17th over of the game bowled by Deepak Chahar as the ball hit his stomach and he immediately fell to the ground. While falling to the ground, he seemed to have pulled his hamstring as well and he asked for help from Deepak Chahar and Ryan Rickelton. He was really struggling and the bruise on his stomach shows the kind of mentality he has to fight for the badge.
Krunal Pandya was undoubtedly the hero with the bat for RCB as he carried a star-studded RCB side on his shoulders. The chase seemed like it would be an easy total for RCB with the kind of batting form they have, but it turned out to be a complex one. Krunal Pandya had taken a blow to his stomach in the early part of the innings and it is fortunate for RCB that he didn’t walk out of the crease. He didn’t have much to do with the ball but he certainly had a huge role with the bat in a difficult run-chase in a two faced pitch.
Injured Krunal Pandya battled through pain to rescue RCB in a crucial playoff clash against MI
During the run chase in the second innings, RCB were pushed on to the back foot in the early part of the game with the quick wickets of Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal and Rajat Patidar. They sent their man for the crisis Krunal Pandya out in the crease to steady the ship. He batted brilliantly alongside Jacob Bethell for an important phase of the game where no wickets were lost and a decent amount of runs scored. Krunal Pandya was affected with the pulled hamstring in the late part of his innings and that took a heavy toll.
The most iconic part of his knock came against Allah Ghazanfar, when he was struggling to move but held his ground to whack a couple of sixes. After the first six he hit, he immediately fell to the ground and his struggle was visible. Once again in the following delivery, he backed himself to hit the bowler for six on the leg-side and he cleared the fence once again. The last ball of the over was more like a free hit as he couldn't run and it was better to have a batter who could run for Romario Shepherd to handle the over of Jasprit Bumrah.
The grit and character displayed by Krunal Pandya will go into history as one of the bravest knocks in the context of the playoffs and his injury struggles. He chose not to walk off and contributed important runs for the side before he was dismissed by a spectacular catch by Tilak Varma at the boundary ropes. This will go down as one of the best knocks from Krunal Pandya in his IPL career and especially for RCB.
