On Sunday afternoon in Ahmedabad, the Gujarat Titans defeated the Lucknow Super Giants by 56 runs to earn their eighth victory of the year. Even though the LSG gave the hosts an early scare by racing to 102/1 in the first ten years, the Titans posted a massive score of 227/2 in 20 overs, and the side struggled in the run chase. The Titans eventually succeeded in keeping the visitors to 171/7. However, one of LSG’s moves in the game that caught many by surprise was to bat Deepak Hooda at No. 3 after Kyle Mayers was dismissed in the ninth over.
Only 53 runs were scored by Hooda in the first nine league games of the season, indicating that he has had trouble scoring runs. Despite the fact that in-form batters like Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni were sitting on the bench, the Super Giants continued to believe in Hooda. The Super Giants’ strategy backfired when Hooda scored a run-a-ball 11 and the tide quickly turned in GT’s favour.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag expressed his surprise at LSG’s action after the game, insisting that it was the choice that altered the outcome of the match. The score after 10 overs was 102/1. After that, they shouldn’t have lost by such a large margin. An effective batter, such as Pooran, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, or Ayush Badoni, who scored some quick runs in the previous game against Chennai, should have entered the batting order after that first wicket, in my opinion. And who arrived? Hooda?” Sehwag spoke with Cricbuzz.
“At that precise moment, they lost that game. LSG made a mistake with that. With the way he plays, Nicholas Pooran could have arrived there and probably scored a 20-ball 50 to alter the outcome of the match. You cannot win if you need 100 runs in five overs.
Sehwag voiced his support and questioned who in the LSG dugout decided to send Hooda when fellow expert Manoj Tiwary added that Ayush Badoni had also been in good form and could have been moved up in the batting order.
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Ayush Badoni made 21 runs off just 11 balls. He could have accelerated the scoring as well if he had arrived in time. Who made that decision? Captain? Coach? or the administration? Who sent Hooda there at 3? There ought to have been a batter in form,” Sehwag said.
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