New Delhi: Batting all-rounder Deepak Hooda, who plies his trade for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, endured a flop show on Friday, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Chennai. CSK suffered their biggest-ever defeat at home as RCB registered a second consecutive win, beating the home side by 50 runs.
Winning the toss and opting to field first didn’t play out well for CSK, which leaked 196 runs in 20 overs with RCB skipper Rajat Patidar hitting a half-century. It was purely a display of sloppy fielding from CSK as Patidar alone survived three catch opportunities, starting with Hooda who dropped him in the 12th over at long-off. Patidar was going strong, and Jadeja soon extracted an opportunity, but Hooda messed up a sitter.
In the very next over, Patidar was dropped two times more, which told a lot about CSK’s poor fielding efforts during the game. During the post-match presentation, skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad stated that poor fielding cost them the game. However, this was only a single factor and if one takes a look at the batting of CSK, during the run-chase, it wasn’t exciting at all.
Although every CSK batter performed poorly but Hooda looked to have been the perfect scapegoat for them all. Batting at a critical moment, Hooda faced several dot balls, and in his short 9-ball innings, he could only make four runs. Hooda looked unfamiliar to batting as the RCB bowlers had the upper hand against him and looked to have hit a four out of fluke, getting an inside edge that went to the fence behind him.
Here’s how the internet reacted to Deepak Hooda’s outing in the CSK vs RCB clash –
Deepak Hooda 12th Man Of RCB 🤡. pic.twitter.com/0nM7nmYZ1P
— Aufridi Chumtya (@ShuhidAufridi) March 28, 2025
Even though I’m usually very optimistic, it’s tough to find any optimism about Deepak Hooda’s batting in the IPL.
In 120 matches, he averages just 18 with a strike rate of 129; even Pat Cummins has a better batting average.
Hooda has recorded eight 50+ scores in IPL, but… pic.twitter.com/adHqk29pqo
— Abhishek AB (@ABsay_ek) March 28, 2025
Chasing 170+ runs w “Deepak Hooda” as our power hitter pic.twitter.com/6LSyq3GRoM
— shanks (@b6astb0y) March 28, 2025
Rahul Tripathi & Deepak Hooda in the XI make our batting look even weaker ngl.
— Hustler (@HustlerCSK) March 28, 2025
Released Rahane only to Buy Deepak Hooda. pic.twitter.com/lkx6aqeIrF
— 🎰 (@StanMSD) March 28, 2025
Deepak Hooda 4(9) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Ball-by-ball Fox 1080p50fps.
This mdc was considered as kohli’s replacement back in 2022😭🙏🏻, Blud middled 2 balls that too dots, scored one 4 that gone through inside edge, played and missed the rest.😭🙏🏻#IPL2025 #RCBvCSK pic.twitter.com/yvfjzKNp0Y
— Utkarsh (@toxify_vk18) March 28, 2025
MS Dhoni at no. 9
At a time when his fans needed him to most, CSK talisman MS Dhoni left many wondering by coming out to bat at no. 9, a position usually meant for the tailenders. Almost every batter had played their part, coming above Dhoni, and the veteran only strode out when the game was already out of reach. This has left many aggravated as a few sets of fans question Dhoni’s game skills over why he didn’t come to bat earlier, when his team was in trouble, and the score could have been chased.
Deepak Hooda endured a forgetful outing against RCB on Friday. He scored a sluggish 9-ball 4 and also dropped a dolly in the first innings. The internet hasn’t been merciful to him since then. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
