3 times Ayush Badoni proved his potential with the bat under pressure ft. IPL 2024
A sensational knock from Ayush Badoni wasn't enough to stop the Delhi Capitals from posting their second victory of the 17th season of the IPL on Friday, April 12. With the Lucknow Supergiants struggling at 94/7, it took a record-breaking eighth-wicket partnership between Badoni and Arshad Khan to give the innings some momentum.
The Lucknow skipper KL Rahul made no hesitation in choosing to bat first as this method had yielded runs for the franchise.
After a superb start from KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock, LSG lost their way in the middle overs, with Kuldeep Yadav spinning a web and unsettling the LSG batters. He bagged three crucial wickets in the form of Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran and KL Rahul to leave LSG reeling at 77/5.
The pacers Ishant Sharma and Mukesh Kumar then came back to take one wicket each and it looked like LSG would be bowled out before finishing their full quota of 20 overs.
However, Badoni and Arshad Khan had other ideas. The duo batted sensibly at the start of their partnership before unleashing some big shots to take the side to a more than competitive score of 167.
The score didn't prove anywhere close to being enough as debutant Jake Fraser-McGurk and Rishabh Pant took the LSG bowlers to the cleaners and ensured a comfortable victory by six wickets. However, Badoni's knock will give both him and his franchise a lot of confidence going forward.
Having said that, let's look at three times Badoni excelled under pressure:
#3 A half-century in his debut against the Gujarat Titans, 2022
"Where have you been hiding?" was the first question Harsha Bhogle asked Ayush Badoni in the mid-match interview after the 22-year-old scored a magnificent half-century in his debut against the Gujarat Titans in 2022.
Having been put in to bat by GT skipper Hardik Pandya, the Supergiants had a disastrous start to their innings. The top four were back in the hut inside the fifth over with the scorecard reading 29/4. That is when Badoni combined with Deepak Hooda to bail them out of trouble.
The duo batted sensibly up front but weren't afraid to take on the mighty bowling attack of the Titans. Badoni, in particular, smashed sixes off the spin wizard Rashid Khan and the tearaway speedster Lockie Ferguson. He was dismissed in the final over but by then the Hooda-Badoni partnership had given some sort of respectability to the score.
The Titans had to toil hard in the run chase and eventually, it was blistering knocks from Rahul Tewatia and Abhinav Manohar which saw them through.
#2 Half-century against Chennai Super Kings under immense pressure, 2023
Badoni scored his second IPL half-century against the five-time champions Chennai Super Kings in 2023.
With LSG struggling at 44/5, Badoni played a heroic knock which included a wide range of shots. He scored a 33 ball 59 to take LSG's score to 125/7 in 19.2 overs before the rain played spoilsport resulting in the match being abandoned.
With the overcast conditions around, MS Dhoni put the opposition in and the CSK bowlers came out all guns blazing. The spin duo of Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana bagged a couple of wickets each to reduce their opponents to 34/4.
Badoni came out to the crease with half the side back in the dugout. He didn't have much time to adjust to the conditions and started taking on the CSK bowlers. On a pitch that looked two-paced and difficult to bat on, Badoni batted with authority and freedom and smashed four sixes and a couple of fours.
#1 A brilliant knock against the Delhi Capitals, 2024
Badoni was struggling to make an impression for the LSG at the start of the 17th season of the IPL. However, when the chips were down and his team needed him to fire, Badoni saved LSG from the blushes taking them to a more than competitive score of 167.
Riding on a sensational spell of wrist spin bowling by Kuldeep Yadav, the Supergiants lost their plot in the middle overs and were reduced to 94/7 in the 13th over. Ayush Badoni batted sensibly to start with and kept rotating the strike and relied on ones and twos to build the partnership.
It was not until the death overs that Badoni tried to take the attacking route but once he got into a groove, there was no stopping the 24-year-old.
Arshad Khan also joined in the fun and the duo shared an unbeaten 73-run stand to take LSG to 167. Badoni eventually remained unbeaten on 55 off 35 deliveries including five fours and a six.