Hardik Pandya booed: Mumbai Police deploy cops in civil clothes at MCA pavilion after hostile crowd response to MI skipper

Hardik Pandya booed: The Mumbai Police deployed cops in civil clothes at the MCA pavilion, the place Mumbai Indians dug out is as a precautionary measure as the crowd inside the stadium soundly booed the franchise’s skipper Hardik Pandya at the toss in the Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals on Monday.

The crowd, who cheered former skipper Rohit Sharma and screamed ‘Mumbai ka Raja kaun? Rohit Sharma’, had also booed Pandya when he had entered Wankhede to warm up before the commencement of the toss.

And when Pandya walked in with Mumbai wobbling at 20 for 4 in the fourth over, there was silence. No boos. Not much cheers either. Then the penny dropped when the stadium announcer first involved the old Mumbai chant: Ganpati bappa Mourya. The crowd repeated it.

By this time, Pandya had taken stance and that’s when the announcer shouted out his name. Then came the boos, starting from square-leg region and the aural taunt spread around.

It took him just four balls to get them on his side. At least for now. He charged out to Burger in the 6th over and sliced a four over point. And as the ball rolled over the boundary, cheers broke out. Next ball, the din grew ever so audibly when he rushed down the track to slap a back-of-length ball through the off side. This time, the flags waved and lungs cleared. Couple of balls later, they were up on their feet to cheer Hardik as he walloped one to long-on boundary. Now most of them were standing up as Burger ran in for the last ball, and Pandya sliced it off the outer edge to third man. Two runs, and the crowd cheered as if it were a boundary.

Earlier, Pandya was booed by the fans as soon as his name was called out before the toss which led to Sanjay Manjrekar, who was conducting the toss, to call for the crowd to ‘behave.’

“MI captain Hardik Pandya. Big round of applause, ladies and gentlemen. Behave,” Manjrekar said as the fans booed the captain in something that has become a regular occurrence in this season of the Indian Premier League. There were loud chants for the former skipper Rohit Sharma as well.

“It’s quite exciting to be a part of this game. We always look forward to the future, need to follow the process. Looking forward to playing a brand of cricket everyone enjoys,” Pandya, who on the surface looked confident, said after losing the toss.

Hardik has already been booed at two venues in Mumbai first two games of IPL 2024. He bore the brunt of the Gujarat Titans’ fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which was expected since Hardik had left the franchise to move back to Mumbai after leading them to the title in the first season.

However, Hardik also got stick from fans in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Get latest updates on IPL 2024 from IPL Points Table to Teams, Schedule, Most Runs and Most Wickets along with live score updates for all matches. Also get Sports news and more cricket updates.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.