The 'hero' and 'unforgivable' tale of two Pandya run-outs

One run-out made him the savior of India on Day 1, the other on Day 3 dragged him down from the high pedastal and staright to the ground, with the sound of the crash landing looming large from the Indian dressing room to the commentary box.

One run-out made him the savior of India on Day 1, the other on Day 3 dragged him down from the high pedastal and staright to the ground, with the sound of the crash landing looming large from the Indian dressing room to the commentary box. 

Hardik Pandya’s rosy South Africa tour hit an unexpected roadblock after experts lashed out at him for being run out committing a school-boy error.

Pandya, who has been the toast of the nation so far, fell victim to his utter casualness in the first hour of Day 3. The all-rounder forgot to put his bat down in an attempt to return to the batting crease when the ball hit the stumps.  The result was rather heartbreaking for captain Virat Kohli, who had just reached his 21^st Test ton and was in his quest to get India close to the South African first innings total of 335 and perhaps even take a slender lead.

There was more reason than one to be miffed with Pandya. Firstly, he took off for a run when his captain and non-striker, Kohli, was least interested in it. Secondly and more importantly, he did not drag his bat down – something, which is considered a huge error even in school cricket.

Naturally, Pandya’s rather lathergic way of getting back to the crease did not go down well the former India cricketers. Sunil Gavaksar even went on to term the error as an ‘unforgivable’ one during commentary.

Pandya’s flamboyant attitude was termed as arrogant by Sanjay Manjrekar.

Interestingly, it was Pandya, who got India right back into the game late on Day 1 by pulling off a brilliant run out off his own bowling to send Hashim Amla back to the pavilion for 82. The run-out triggered a collapse in the visitors strong middle order and allowed India to bowl them out for 335.

Thankfully for Pandya, India did not have a similar kind of collapse and they managed to recover from it mainly because of some outstanding batting from captain Virat Kohli, who went to score his ninth 150 plus score and took India past 300. He was well supported by Ashwin, who scored a fluent 38.

Kohli was finally out for 153 and India were bowled out for 307, giving a 28-run lead to the hosts.