WATCH: Krunal Pandya declines run out to tend to KL Rahul; wins hearts for fair play

Krunal Pandya is not having the greatest of time for the Mumbai Indians this season. However, a brilliant moment during the game between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings in Abu Dhabi seemed to have won him a lot of plaudits on social media. The spirit of cricket discussion has gone multiple ways over the last […]
 
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WATCH: Krunal Pandya declines run out to tend to KL Rahul; wins hearts for fair play

Krunal Pandya is not having the greatest of time for the Mumbai Indians this season. However, a brilliant moment during the game between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings in Abu Dhabi seemed to have won him a lot of plaudits on social media. The spirit of cricket discussion has gone multiple ways over the last few years, but when it is in play as it is conventionally meant to be, it is always heart-warming.

Krunal Pandya bowled the final ball of the batting powerplay to Chris Gayle, who hit it straight to the non-striker KL Rahul. Rahul was left distressed by the hit, but the senior of the Pandya brothers picked up the ball and tried to run Rahul out, who seemed to have been outside the crease.

However, just when Rohit Sharma was getting involved, Krunal retracted his appeal and asked the onfield umpire, Virender Sharma, to not go ahead. This spirit of the game moment will have earned some points for Mumbai Indians in the Fairplay award race, and also managed to get a thumbs up from the Punjab Kings captain.

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Almost immediately after this incident, Punjab Kings lost both Chris Gayle and KL Rahul to Kieron Pollard. Krunal Pandya’s decision to not go upstairs helped Pollard find his 300th and 301st wicket in T20 cricket in the next over and Mumbai Indians had their heads held high.

WATCH: Krunal Pandya declines run out to tend to KL Rahul; wins hearts for fair play

Here’s the video of that moment.

A rare good outing for Krunal Pandya

Having scored just 121 runs with the bat and picked up just 4 wickets with the ball, Krunal Pandya’s tournament has not been very impressive in 2021. However, the man who gave crucial contributions in the 2017 and 2019 finals for Mumbai, is omnipresent in the lineup. He paid off Rohit Sharma‘s trust today with a stunning spell, that saw him get one crucial wicket of Mandeep Singh.

Pandya bowled with the new ball and completed his quota of overs before the 10th over. Despite bowling three overs in powerplay, he went for just 24 runs in 4 overs and capped off impressive returns to boost his side’s chances of getting a win.