Former India player Aakash Chopra has praised Jitesh Sharma for playing a match-winning knock in RCB’s match against the LSG. He shared that the stand-in RCB captain no longer has the ‘infamous’ record of not having scored a fifty despite reaching near multiple times in his IPL career. Jitesh scored an unbeaten 85 off 33 deliveries in the chase as well.

Reflecting on RCB’s chase in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “When the fourth wicket fell at 123, things were looking a little dicey. Will O’Rourke was on a hat-trick. Liam Livingstone came and went. It seems like he is the new Glenn Maxwell of the IPL. However, they batted incredibly. Captain Jitesh Sharma – leading from the front, leading by example.”

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“His batting was terrific. He stayed till the end. In fact, it’s his first IPL fifty. He had scored many forties. He had an infamous record to his name, that he had played so many knocks and scored more than 800 runs, and was the only such player not to have scored a fifty thus far. He scored a fifty and won the match. Doing a run chase so immaculately was outstanding. Mayank Agarwal was there with him. He was made to bat down the order this time. He also batted incredibly, and they won with six wickets to spare,” Chopra shared.

However, Aakash Chopra also lauded Virat Kohli and Phil Salt for giving RCB a flying start in their match against LSG.

“You need to hit from the start when you are chasing a 225-230 total, and they did that. Phil Salt and Virat Kohli are batting incredibly. It’s not that they are stitching together 100 or 125-run partnerships, but they run at a very high speed, and both complement each other,” he said.

“If I talk about Virat Kohli’s technique, it seems like the software continues to get updated and upgraded. He still plays close to the body. When he hits in the air, it doesn’t seem like he is taking risks. Until he was playing, you were never behind the required run rate, and in fact, you were slightly ahead. He showed why he is the chase master,” Aakash Chopra concluded.