Jonty Rhodes joked that Deepak Hooda deliberately dropped Ravindra Jadeja’s catch.© X (Twitter)
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) fielding coach Jonty Rhodes poked fun at all-rounder Deepak Hooda for dropping a catch during their IPL 2024 match on Friday. After the match, Rhodes presented the Magic Mic award, which is given to the best fielder in the team after every LSG game, to Hooda. However, Rhodes’ decision was more ironical as Hooda had dropped a catch in the 17th over and also gifted CSK six runs. Ravindra Jadeja hit a fuller delivery off Mohsin Khan towards long-on and Hooda parried the ball away for a six after misjudging it.
In a video uploaded by LSG, Rhodes hilariously claimed that Hooda deliberately dropped the catch and prevented MS Dhoni from facing more deliveries.
For the unversed, Dhoni played an unbeaten cameo of 28 from nine balls, slamming two 6s and three boundaries. He came to bat in the 18th over after Moeen Ali‘s dismissal.
“I think it was a smart decision by birthday boy Deepak Hooda to let the ball go for a six, so that meant Dhoni didn’t come out for another five balls,” Rhodes can be heard as saying in the video.
MSD, Hoody, Magic Mike – Only Jonty could’ve done this pic.twitter.com/VBnmQwcfvs
— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) April 20, 2024
The enire dressing room burst into laughter and Hooda also took the joke sportingly.
Coming back to the match, LSG’s clinical bowling restricted Chennai in the middle overs, with Shivam Dube (three) not being able to pop off.
Dhoni’s late burst guided CSK to 176/6, a total which LSG achieved with an over to spare.
Openers Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul set up the chase with a superb 134-run partnership.
De Kock hit a 43-ball 54 while Rahul smashed an incredible 82 runs off 53 balls.
Despite the defeat, five-time champions CSK are currently third on the points table with eight points from six games. On the other hand, LSG are fifth with three wins.
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