'You tell me, I don't know' - Hardik Pandya tells reporter when asked about 'turning point' in Mohali T20I

India faced Australia in the series opener of the three-match T20I series on Tuesday evening (September 20) at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. After a disappointing run in the Asia Cup 2022 edition, India were expected to start off with a win in home conditions, however, the Rohit Sharma-led Men in Blue failed to defend 208/6 and lost the game in the last over by four wickets.

Being asked to bat first, India rode on vice-captain KL Rahul's 35-ball 55, Suryakumar Yadav's 46, and Hardik Pandya's scintillating 30-ball 71 not out to post 208 for 6 in their full quota of overs. In reply, Australia were off to a flier courtesy of makeshift opener Cameron Green's 61 before Matthew Wade's 21-ball 45 not out took his side home with fours wickets and an equal number of balls to spare.

In the post-match press conference, all-rounder Hardik addressed the media and gave a sarcastic reply when asked by a reporter to reveal the 'turning point' of the contest.

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"Aap batao, mujhe nahi pata, humko pata hota toh wahi nahi rok dete na. (You tell me, I don't know. Had we known about it, we would've stopped them in the field)", Hardik said in response to the question from a journalist's question; leaving everyone baffled.

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Hardik further asserted, "Dekho sir, pinpoint nahi kar sakte. Unke time pe bhi ek over mein 24-25 run aye, usse kuch farak nahi padta. Bilateral series hai, aur do matches hai usmein koshish karenge kuch achchha karne ki. (Sir, we can't pinpoint on a single over, they also conceded 24-25 runs in an over. Westill have two more games in the series and, hence,we will try to make a comeback)."

At the halfway mark in the run-chase, Australia was marching ahead being well-placed at 109-1. However, India reduced them to 145 for 5 in 14.1 overs and were favourites with the Aussies needing 40 off 18 balls. Nonetheless, Bhuvneshwar Kumar leaked 31 runs in his last 12 deliveries whereas Harshal Patel was smacked for 22 runs in the penultimate over as the visitors achieved a 1-0 lead.

At the post-match presentation, captain Rohit pointed out, "I don't think we bowled well. 200 is a good score to defend, and we didn't take our chances in the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but bowlers were not quite there. There are things we need to look at, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong. We know this is a high-scoring ground. You can't relax even if you get 200. We took wickets to an extent, but they played really well. They played some extraordinary shots. If I was in that changing room, I would expect to chase that total. You can back yourself to defend 60 runs in the final 4 overs. We were not able to take that extra wicket. That was the turning point, if we would have taken another wicket, things would have been different."