IPL 2024: Hardik Pandya booed at Wankhede as Manjrekar comes to his rescue, warns crowd to ‘behave’ - Watch

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya was subjected to a hostile reception on his return to the Wankhede Stadium on Monday (Apr 1), forcing presenter Sanjay Manjrekar to chip in and simmer down the situation.

Pandyaarrived at the centre of the ground alongside Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson for the toss when the Mumbai crowd started to boo him vociferously. Pandya could be seen startled by the combative reaction of the crowd that used to adore him in the past.

“We’re all set for the toss here. Got the two captains with me – Hardik Pandya, the captain of Mumbai Indians. Big round of applause, ladies and gentlemen,” Manjrekar said, with the crowd booing incessantly. “Behave,” Manjrekar then said.

The boos continued when Pandya stepped up to speak to Manjrekar after losing the toss. Such was the cacophony that both of their voices were drowned by the boos.

After Manjrekar finished his interview with Hardik, he toldhim to have a good game and that he was a “champion cricketer”.

Pandya was also booed during the match against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad last month. The Indian all-rounder had returned to his previous franchise's home for the first time after making the shock return to Mumbai, where he replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain.

Mumbai fumble against RR

Put into bat first, MI were off to a horrific start as Trent Boult and Nandre Burger wreaked havoc by picking four wickets within the powerplay.

Rohit Sharma departed on a golden duck as he feathered a wide outside off delivery by attempting to play it. Naman Dhir also returned to the hut on the very next delivery as he was trapped on the front leg. He went upstairs but the DRS showed it was umpire's call.

Impact player Dewald Brevis did not last long either while Ishan Kishan edged one behind after Burger bowled a corker of a delivery.

Playing XI's:

Mumbai Indians:Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jasprit Bumrah, Kwena Maphaka

Rajasthan Royals:Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal