Bhuvneshwar Kumar's flat batted shot crashes into Hardik Pandya

With Team India winning the toss and electing to bat first, Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli did well to consolidate the innings after Rohit Sharma’s early dismissal. The duo went on to get slow yet steady half-centuries for themselves but after Rahane was run out, it was upon Kohli to take things further. With momentary help from Kedar Jadhav, the Indian skipper was dismissed just eight short of his 31st ODI hundred.

However, after the captain’s dismissal, MS Dhoni was removed for a single digit score for the first time since the Champions Trophy. That was the moment when momentum slipped from India and what looked like a 270+ score was pulled back to 252.

Hardik Pandya did try to play a high impact innings but Australia had their plans sorted for him today. There was no spin bowled to him which he usually exploits. In the process of holding on to his wicket, he was almost hit by a shot Bhuvneshwar Kumar played off a fuller delivery from Nathan Coulter-Nile. Thankfully, he avoided a nasty injury despite taking a tough blow on the side of his face.

The incident occurred when Coulter-Nile was bowling to Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 47th over. With just a few balls remaining, Bhuvneshwar flat-batted the delivery. However, instead of finding the rope as Bhuvneshwar would have wanted, the ball crashed into Pandya’s helmet at the non-striker’s end. It looked quite scary as the batter and bowler rushed to check on him. The ball seemed to have hit Pandya under the right ear as he tried to save himself with his hand.

Australia captain Steve Smith along with his teams also rushed to check the allrounder’s health before calling the physio himself. It was a good gesture but more importantly, a necessary one because the Aussies have the first-hand experience of what a nasty blow from the ball can do on as we saw with Phil Hughes. The Indian all-rounder was soon attended by Team India physio and luckily continued to bat, much to the delight of the crowd.

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— cricket (@84107010ghwj) September 21, 2017