SRH, KXIP, Nicholas Pooran
Nicholas Pooran [Photo-Twitter]

We saw glimpses of Nicholas Pooran’s whirlwind strokeplay in the last game before he was brilliantly caught by Ravindra Jadeja. On Thursday, we saw the complete picture at the expense of SunRisers Hyderabad’s batting all-rounder, Abdul Samad as the southpaw just laid into the youngster to keep Kings XI Punjab’s hopes alive in their run-chase of 202.

Samad came into bowl in the ninth over and what followed next was-6,4,6,6,6,0- as the Kings XI Punjab swashbuckler registered the fastest 50 of the 2020 Dream11 IPL. Pooran did that in just 17 balls.

Pooran meant business right from the very outset today and as soon as he saw Abdul Samad with the ball in his hand, his eyes just lit up. Samad bowled a loopy delivery first-up, which the West Indian proceeded to smash over long-off for a six.

Nicholas Pooran
Nicholas Pooran [Photo-Screengrab]
The second ball was a touch fuller but Pooran had no issues in dealing with that as he threw the kitchen sink at it, bludgeoning it past wide long-off for a boundary. The third delivery saw Nicholas Pooran smoke possibly the biggest six of the night as he got to the pitch of the ball to mow it over long-on.

The carnage continued with the wicketkeeper-batsman smashing the next ball for his sixth biggie of the night and in the process, he brought up his maiden IPL half-century- the second-fastest ever by a KXIP batsman and the fifth-fastest overall.

Clearly rattled by the carnage, Abdul Samad proceeded to dish it short, only for Pooran to rock back on the backfoot to smash it over deep mid-wicket. Samad finally bowled a dot ball on the final delivery as the benevolent Pooran watchfully guided the ball in front of covers to end the onslaught.

At the time of writing, Pooran was batting on a 32-ball 77.

Watch the video here: