Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has praised Nitish Kumar Reddy for playing a match-winning innings for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in IPL 2024. In the match played in Mullanpur on Tuesday, April 9, Reddy scored 64 runs in 37 balls, thanks to this innings SRH set a target of 183 runs for PBKS. After this, Pat Cummins and Company registered a modest two-run victory by restricting Punjab to 180/6.
In a video shared on her YouTube channel, Chopra was all praise for Reddy. Reddy was bought by SRH for ₹20 lakh in the IPL 2023 auction. In the match against PBKS, Nitish played a brilliant inning and brought his team out of a difficult situation and took the team to a big score.
Aakash Chopra praised Nitish Reddy
Chopra said, “Hyderabad’s batting faltered in the beginning. At one time it seemed that even 150 runs might be difficult. However, Nitish Reddy, he was a net bowler with Chennai till last year and won the last match by hitting a six on the last ball and here also he scored runs and scored good runs.”
The former opening batsman further said, “The boy bats well. He has strength. In the first 15 years of this tournament, there were very few Indian finishers. That’s why whoever can finish gets his price skyrocketed in the auction. However, now you can look at players like Rahul Tewatia, Shivam Dubey, Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma, you can also put Nitish Kumar Reddy in the same list.”
Along with this, Aakash Chopra also praised Abdul Samad (25 runs, 12 balls). He said, “Abdul Samad played a short innings but it was also important because going beyond 180 gives you a score worth fighting for. The big names, be it Aiden Markram, Travis Head or Heinrich Klaasen, did not score runs but the Indian players in the Hyderabad team brought the team forward.”