Bengaluru: There is something which is intriguingly mysterious about Manish Pandey. An underachiever by miles, on his good day, he is batsman who holds your attention from the moment he swaggers on to the pitch. He is a man who has seen as much as lows as the highs in his career, while his peers like Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja have left him way behind in terms of national team call-ups and achievements. But every now and then he emerges from dead water to showcase the immense talent in him.
The Nainital-born Bengaluru boy, didn’t turn on the run machine into top gear like his state-mate Robin Uthappa, but remained a useful contributor to Kolkata Knight Riders’ successful campaign this season.
His 50-ball 94 struck brilliantly on auto pilot mode on Sunday night deservingly earned him the man of the match, but more importantly, it outlined his ability to face challenge in the eye of a pressure cooker situation.
Playing on his home turf, the 24-year-old delivered a masterclass in stroke-making and timing which saw him take the Kings XI Punjab bowlers to the cleaners.
Pandey who played a key role in Karnataka’s dream season in which they won the Ranji and Irani Trophy said, “We have got four achievements, Ranji Trophy, Irani, (also Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) cherry on the cake was the IPL.”
On his own blitz, Pandey said, “I’m very optimistic and I love to play the crunch game. “We got ten in the first over, and that was the time I thought, if we kept doing that, we’ll get 200.”
Skipper Gautam Gambhir put things in perspective when he said, “When we picked Manish Pandey, we had a lot of faith and trust in him. He’s delivered when it mattered the most. Not many franchises would have continued with him because he had struggled in the last couple of games. But we always felt he had the talent and fearlessness to go out and play this kind of an innings.”
Pandey’s knock-to-remember has brought him back into the limelight, it is now up to the stylish batsman to carry forward the momentum and ensure he doesn’t lose the way, which he has most often done in the past.
