Manish Pandey's MS Dhoni comment leaves journalists in splits during press conference

Centurion: While his unbeaten 79-run knock off 48 balls went in vain, Manish Pandey was in a jovial mood as he addressed the media after South Africa beat India by eight wickets to win the second Twenty20 international and level the three-match series in Centurion on Wednesday.

Although Pandey struggled in the first T20, he was India’s leading run-getter and was involved in an unbeaten 98-run stand with MS Dhoni, who scored unbeaten 52 off 28 balls to power India to 188, after being reduced to 90/4.

Read: Virat Kohli praises MS Dhoni, Manish Pandey despite 2nd T20 loss vs South Africa

While Pandey addressed quite a few topics, from his batting position to Heinrich Klaasen, his comment on batting with Dhoni in the last few overs left the media contingent in splits during the post-match press conference.

“Mahi woke up. There was his chance. He is probably the best when he bats lower down the order. In the last couple of overs he looks to dominate and he has done that a number of times,” said Manish.

"I thought South Africa bowled fairly well. It is just that the couple of inside edges went to the boundary and some really good shots by Mahi to take us to 188. But I think South Africa bowled fairly well today,” added the right-handed batsman.

During the match, meanwhile, Manish had to face some music from Dhoni as the stump mic caught the wicketkeeper-batsman having a go at the Karnataka batsman.

This incident happened during the 20th over, when the Jharkhand batsman was batting on 35.

“Oye. Bh****ke. Idhar dekh le. Udhar kya dekh raha hai. (Look here. Why are you staring over there),” he was heard saying on the stump mic.

Soon after, the video went viral on social media.