Watch: Crowd goes ballistic as Hardik Pandya announces return of Sanju Samson to playing XI – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

In a bid to try out as many faces as possible before the T20 World Cup, the Indian team included Sanju Samson for the 2nd T20I against Ireland in Malahide. When skipper Hardik Pandya announced his return, the crowd present in the ground went ballistic and even made Pandya take a pause and smile at the response.

India won the first game. The second fixture went down to the wire and India clinched victory in the final ball of the match. The side had made three changes for the second T20I against Ireland — Ruturaj Gaikwad was out with a niggle and hence, Sanju Samson was called up. Harshal Patel replaced Avesh Khan while Ravi Bishnoi was given a go as India opted to rest Yuzvendra Chahal.

As soon as Pandya announced his team, the crowd in Malahide went berserk. Pandya paused, looked at the crowd, smiled and said: “A lot of people liking it”.

Watch:

Deepak Hooda and Sanju Samson were the stars for India as they stitched a 176-run stand in the second T20I. After a rather watchful start, both players shifted gears and while Hooda was more expressive, Samson too went after the bowlers. Samson missed out on his century, but Deepak Hooda registered his ton in 55 balls. When they went past 165 runs, the duo bettered the 2017 record shared by KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma against Sri Lanka in Indore.

On their way to achieving this record, Hooda and Samson also combined to notch up the ninth highest partnership in all men’s T20Is, the highest second-wicket partnership in all men’s T20Is as well as the highest partnership for India for any wicket in men’s T20Is.

Ireland were superb in reply as they kept up with the required run rate, but Umran Malik held his nerve and gave India a four-run win in the final over.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.