IPL 2024 - Sunil Gavaskar takes a dig at Hardik Pandya; says 'must give new ball to your best bowler'

It's the 50th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, and surely there had to be drama! Even before the start of the clash between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar took a dig at Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya after RR captain Sanju Samson gave the first ball to be bowled by Trent Boult.

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This comes after Hardik Pandya has not been giving Jasprit Bumrah the new ball of the innings, and has either taken the first over himself or given it to an overseas bowler with Bumrah getting it later. The now-commentator said, "Trent Boult bowling the first over - you must give the brand new ball to your best bowler and not 6-ball-old also."

Fans who heard the statement, took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to speak about it, with many also saying the former cricketer has not forgotten Pandya's decisions.

Haha Sunil Gavaskar still upset with Hardik over not giving Bumrah the first over. #RRvsSRH

— mondays (@monday1917) May 2, 2024

Sunil Gavaskar taking shots at Hardik Pandya even before RR vs SRH starts, you love to see it

— Aadit (@AaditHarkawat) May 2, 2024

Sunil Gavaskar said - Trent Boult bowling first over - you must give brand new ball to your best bowler n not 6 ball old also... how right he is Riyan dropped Head on his first Ball

Hardik - nothing to do with you 😭#RRvsSRH #SRHvRR #SRHvsRR #TavisHead #RiyanParag #Sanju pic.twitter.com/XkTrGJcsbF

— Daebak Ankita (@DaebakAnkita) May 2, 2024

As for the clash, after 8 overs, SRH, who won the toss and opted to bat first, posted 48 runs but also lost 2 wickets. It's been an excellent powerplay for RR as they picked a couple of wickets and also kept a tight lid on the scoring rate. Abhishek Sharma departed for 12 off 10, bowled by Avesh Khan, while Anmolpreet Singh was dismissed for 5 off 5 by Sandeep Sharma. Travis Head (25 off 25) and Nitish Reddy (3 off 8) are currently at the crease.

Lowest Powerplay scores for SRH in IPL 2024

37/2 vs RR Hyderabad *

40/3 vs PK Mullanpur

53/3 vs CSK Chennai

56/1 vs GT Ahmedabad

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma

Impact Subs: Jos Buttler, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Tanush Kotian

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Nitish Reddy, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan

Impact Subs: Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Aiden Markram, Sanvir Singh, Jaydev Unadkat