Deepak Hooda essayed a sparkling fifty as Rajasthan registered a thrilling win in the final over. In the last over, Tim Southee and Chris Morris held their nerve to win the game for them. It was Southee, who hit the winning runs with a boundary. In fact, Delhi’s spin twins, Mishra and Tahir used the googly to outfox the opposition.
But Hooda plundered the opposition bowlers and took the game away from their grasp. Hooda landed some crunching blows over the long on region. He also showed good wrist-work. It has to be said that Delhi’s fielding was below par. Yuvraj missed a chance to run out Hooda and Manoj Tiwary also dropped a catch to give the 19-year old a reprieve.
Earlier, it was Mayank Agarwal, who kick-started the innings with a quick-fire knock. Shreyas Iyer, JP Duminy and Angelo Mathews all played their parts to give their bowlers a good score to defend. Pravin Tambe and Hooda seemed to have pulled the batting side back, but just in the nick of time, Mathews lifted Delhi’s sagging spirits with a late cameo. In the end though, Delhi lost yet another game and now their losing streak in the IPL extends to 11 matches.
Deepak Hooda is the Man of the Match for his match-winning knock of 54 from just 25 balls.
Steve Smith at post-match presentation: It just shows that in this game, you are not getting buried. The way the boys played is magnificent. The way the youngster Hooda played is sensational. Faulkner and Morris also struck a few good ones. It’s the thing with Rajasthan, we like to blood young Indians and we will keep doing that. It’s good to take 2 wins out of 2 and hopefully, we can take this momentum forward.
IPL 8: Hooda stars as Rajasthan seal last-ball thriller against Delhi
