Aakash Chopra appreciated Mukul Chaudhary For his heroics against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Thursday, April 9, which helped Lucknow Super Giants register a thrilling last-ball win. The Rishabh Pant-led franchise needed 54 runs from the last four overs and Mukul scored 52 of them.
Chopra said Lucknow were really out of the game, but Chaudhary's courageous innings helped them get the better of the three-time champions.
“Mukul Choudhary, brother, a star is born. He has played incredible innings. In a game where there was no expectation of winning, this boy showed confidence. 'You guys are thinking that this game is difficult to win, but I am just counting the number of sixes I have to hit.' What a player and what a knock,” Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.
He said, “They had no business winning this game. Lucknow Super Giants lost this game because there were no batsmen left. Only Mukul Choudhary was left, and he is a kid who is playing his first IPL.”
He started cultivating strikes from the 16th over: Aakash Chopra
The former India opener highlighted the fact that Choudhary took most of the strikes from the 16th over onwards as he did not trust his partners lower down the order enough. Chopra advised Lucknow to adjust their team structure as they have only seven batsmen and five bowlers despite the impact player rule.
“They started cultivating strikes from the 16th over because they didn't trust the batsmen at the other end. Actually, Lucknow Super Giants is a team which has seven batsmen and five bowlers. You can play 12 players because you have an impact player, but the batting ends at No. 7, and they don't have a sixth bowler. This is something they need to focus on,” he said.
Chopra said that 21-year-old Chaudhary hit sixes in all areas of the park and did not target just one or two specific areas of the ground.
“He was left far behind, and the batting was over, but he kept hitting sixes. He hit Cameron Green and Vaibhav Arora, and he single-handedly won the game. Every time he played two dot balls, he followed it with a six and he hit it all over the place. He also pulled off a short helicopter. He pulled short balls for sixes, hit them back too, and the six he hit over cover was the icing on the cake. Brilliant, well done,” Chopra said.
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