Lucknow Super Giants batter Ayush Badoni blew a kiss to the spectators at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium after completing his second Indian Premier League half-century against Chennai Super Kings. Thus, becoming the second player after former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli in doing it this season.
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Kohli, who first did the same for wife Anushka Sharma at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, also made the gesture towards spectators in the last match at this venue.
Badoni’s first IPL 2023 half-century came as a one-man show of the highest quality. With his teammates struggling badly on what appears to be a Day 5 Test match pitch, the 23-year old player justified his potential after a demotion in the batting order.
Coming in to bat at No. 5 with his team in tatters around the halfway mark, Badoni was at 9* (14) before hitting his first six of the match. Attacking CSK spinner Maheesh Theekshana, the right-handed batter didn’t hesitate before sitting down on a knee and slogging the off-spinner convincingly.
Continuing to find boundaries on a regular basis from hereon, Badoni managed to do the same in spite of wicket-keeper batter Nicholas Pooran scoring 20 (31) at a strike rate of 64.51.
Ayush Badoni Emulates Virat Kohli in Blowing Kiss to Lucknow Fans
It was on the third delivery of the penultimate over when Badoni pulled a Deepak Chahar delivery way back into the stands to bring up a 30-ball half-century under testing circumstances.
Readers must note that Badoni was batting at 59* (33) at the time when rain caused a second interruption in Lucknow today. The fact that no other player managed to score more than 10 runs at a strike rate in excess of 100 speaks highly about the manner in which he adjusted to the conditions under pressure.
