Mumbai Indians take a slight dig at Dinesh Karthik after the Hamilton loss
The Indian team lost the T20I series 1-2 to New Zealand following a nail-biting defeat in the third game at the Seddon Park in Hamilton on Sunday.
Chasing 213, India were in the game till the last over before eventually falling short by 4 runs. There was quite some drama towards the end of the Indian innings as Dinesh Karthik turned down a possible single to retain the strike when 14 runs were needed off 4 balls.
The batsman at the other end, Krunal Pandya, was looking well set and striking it cleanly. The left-hander was batting on 25 runs off just 12 balls at that point in time.
Karthik's decision to turn down the single backfired as he could not find a boundary off the next ball. He hit a six off the last ball but that was not enough to see India home.
In response to Karthik's interesting tactics, Mumbai Indians' official Twitter handle took an indirect dig at the Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper batsman on social media.
The Mumbai Indians team expressed their disappointment at Karthik's decision to turn down the single to their all-rounder Krunal.
The 3-time IPL Champions tweeted, "@krunalpandya24 26 not out from 13 balls and got to face only one ball in the final over. Hard luck, KP".
Krunal Pandya has been featuring in India's T20I team during the course of the last few months. He can provide four usually tidy overs with the ball and double up as a handy batsman in the lower order. The all-rounder was the Man of the match when India won the second T20I at Auckland. Krunal returned with figures of 3/28 off 4 overs in that particular game.
However, Krunal leaked 54 runs from his four overs in the deciding T20I at Hamilton. He remained unbeaten on 26 off 13 balls while Karthik was not out on 33 off 16 balls.