Fans react as Sanjay Manjrekar asks the Mumbai crowd to behave
The drama unfolded during the toss for the 14th match of IPL 2024 between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. When the newly-appointed captain of Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya, arrived for the coin ceremony in MI’s first home game of the season, the crowd didn’t welcome him cheerfully and rather booed him loudly.
Sanjay Manjrekar, who came to do the formalities with two captains, spoke Hardik’s name and asked the packed Wankhede crowd to give their captain a loud round of applause. However, the spectators did the opposite and booed Hardik so harshly that Manjrekar had to ask the fans to behave.
Hardik stood there with a wry smile on his face, pretending to be unaffected by the uncharacteristic behaviour of the fans. He has been subjected to vociferation at every venue he has been in IPL 2024, with MI fans showing their displeasure with Hardik.
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When Hardik went to his home ground in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Titans’ supporters booed him harshly before the Hyderabad crowd continued the trend in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s home game. That Mumbai Indians haven’t won any game so far has made life arduous for Hardik this season.
Fans react as Sanjay Manjrekar asks Mumbai crowd to behave
After seeing the tyrannical comments targeted at Hardik Pandya, Sanjay Manjrekar had to intervene and ask the Mumbai crowd to behave. Sanjay’s request was ignored by the spectators in Wankhede Stadium, and they continued to boo Hardik.
Hardik Pandya also lost the toss to exacerbate his case, and Rajasthan Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson elected to field first. He invited Mumbai batters to face two world-class new bowlers of RR.
However, Sanjay’s request asking the Mumbai crowd to show some respect to Hardik received mixed reactions from netizens. The social media gave different opinions on Sanjay’s gesture.
While one section of the social media applauded Sanjay’s gesture, the other section felt the veteran commentator could have avoided it. We have curated a few reactions from X (formerly Twitter) on Manjrekar’s gesture.
Here are some reactions:
Mumbai Indians didn’t get a great start and lost plenty of wickets early on. Hardik Pandya batted well but couldn’t take his team to a reasonable total.
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