SAKSHI JAIN ∙ 2 July 2022
'It was extremely generous of him,' Harry Tector reveals conversation with Hardik Pandya
Ireland's stylish batter Harry Tector has been gaining limelight for all the right reasons in the cricket fraternity. Even though Ireland lost the series against India recently, Tector became an instant hit due to his power-hitting abilities. In the two T20 Internationals, the right-hander smacked 103 runs at an astounding strike rate of 168.85. The first T20I saw the right-hander slam 64* runs off just 33 balls, while in the second game, he hit 39 runs after facing 28 balls. Tector's game left the Indian stand-in skipper Hardik Pandya amazed, and he couldn't stop himself from singing praises for the batter. The Indian all-rounder also presented the Irish batter with his bat, hoping to see him feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) one day. The 22-year-old recently appeared before the media to candidly discuss his meeting with the Indian superstar. Harry revealed that it was a kind gesture by Hardik to gift his bat. "It was extremely generous of him. I didn't expect him to do that. He was very nice to me. He has a lot of good bats. I'm sure there will be a few lads who will try to nick it off me (laughs)," Tector told Sportskeeda. Furthermore, the Irish star also spoke about his ambition of playing in the IPL. Tector believes that getting a contract in the T20 extravaganza will be a great achievement for the Irish batter. However, the batter doesn't want to give too much thought to it as his first priority will be taking Ireland to greater heights. "If you ask any player if they want to play in the IPL, they'll say yes. To be honest, I'm not getting too caught up in all of that. If you start worrying about that sort of stuff, you're going to find yourself getting into trouble," he said. "All I can do is score consistently and quickly in T20 cricket. If I do that consistently enough, it would be great to get an IPL contract. My main priority is to win games for Ireland and that will never change," Harry added. The Ireland cricket team showed much promise in the 2nd T20I, giving India a run for their money. Batting first, India posted a mammoth score of 225 runs in their 20 overs. Chasing the total, the host served the viewers with utmost entertainment. Against India's lethal bowling attack, Ireland scored 221 runs as they lost the game by just four runs. Though Ireland batters impressed with their conduct on the field, Harry Tector wasn't satisfied with his performance in the second T20I. "To be honest, I feel I didn't hit the ball too well. I'm not sure how many balls I faced. We were pretty clear about how we wanted to time the chase in terms of not letting the asking rate get too high." "I think we managed that pretty well the whole way through. Bal [Andrew Balbirnie] and George [Dockrell] batted really well, which made us feel like we were in control of the chase," the right-hander concluded.
