Deepak Hooda cricket player: Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and others hail Punjab Kings batsman’s career-best IPL knock

Dixit Bhargav | 12/04/2021
Deepak Hooda cricket player: Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and others hail Punjab Kings batsman's career-best IPL knock

Deepak Hooda: The right-hand batsman from Punjab Kings scored a whirlwind third half-century in the Indian Premier League.

During the fourth match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings in Mumbai, Punjab Kings batsman Deepak Hooda scored a whirlwind third IPL half-century to amaze one and all.

Coming in to bat at No. 4 at the halfway mark, Hooda justified his promotion ahead of wicket-keeper batsman Nicholas Pooran by scoring a career-best 64 (28) with the help of four fours and six sixes.

Hooda, who had hit a half-century in Punjab’s last IPL 2020 match, seemed to have found a place in the Playing XI ahead of Mandeep Singh and Sarfaraz Khan due to the same reason.

Carrying on from where he’d left in the UAE, Hooda played some outrageous shots to make the opposition bowlers look clueless at the Wankhede Stadium. In addition to Hooda’s prowess with the bat in hand, what appeared to have caught Royals wanting was the unexpected nature of the knock.

Having played seven deliveries, Hooda smashed five sixes off his next seven deliveries to not let Kings feel veteran batsman Chris Gayle’s absence. It was in the 16th over when Hooda ran a single off Royals all-rounder Chris Morris to complete a 20-ball half-century.

Hooda, who recently missed the domestic season for Baroda due to controversial reasons, made the most of his first competitive innings since IPL 2020 by putting on display a freak show of batsmanship.

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Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Deepak Hooda Harbhajan Singh Indian Premier League IPL 2021 Irfan Pathan PBKS Punjab Kings rajasthan royals RR

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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