Rahul asks teammates to bat fearlessly like Hooda

|| India Correspondent ||

After a nail-biting win over Rajasthan Royals, a relieved Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul asked his batsmen to bat fearlessly like Deepak Hooda. Rahul, who himself smashed 91 off 50 deliveries, kept his calm even after Samson's 119 was on the verge of taking Rajasthan to the finish line.

“Deepak Hooda’s innings was amazing. That’s the kind of batting we want to see as a team. We want to bat fearlessly and take down bowlers. We have a lot of power in our line-up but we have been slightly tentative. It is important for us to bat fearlessly. It is great to see boys trying to understand what we expect,” said KL Rahul after the match.

Deepak Hooda made a blistering 64 off 28 balls, which helped the team put up a massive total of 221 runs on the board after their allotted 20 overs. While he heaped praises his batting unit he said that the bowlers need to be a bit consistent with their line and lengths as well.

“Heart rate was high but I didn’t stop believing. We knew a couple of wickets would bring us back. Till the first 10-11 overs, we bowled well. It was close because we dropped a few sitters, including me. We batted really well and bowled well in patches. We weren’t consistent with the lengths but the bowlers will learn. It’s a young team, some new boys, the boys are talented and skillful, so we need to back them,” Rahul again shared.

Rahul also acknowledged his counterpart, Sanju Samson, who had played a stunning inning of 119 runs which saw them lost the game by 4 runs only despite having a huge total. However, he said that it was always hard to bowl against him.