Dhoni And Uthappa: Only Cricketers Billiards Star Pankaj Advani Follows

IPL 2022: Dhoni and Uthappa, both will be playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The Chennai franchise bought Uthappa for his base price of Rs 2 crore at the mega auctions held last month.

New Delhi: India’s Billiards star Pankaj Advani may not be an ardent follower of cricket, but he never misses a match when Robin Uthappa is playing, he revealed in a recent media interaction. For the unversed, Uthappa is Advani’s college friend and a neighbour in Bengaluru. Pankaj Advani is a 24-time world champion in different categories.

Advani, 36, who won the Asian Billiards Championship in 2022, said that apart from Robin, he also likes watching Mahendra Singh Dhoni in action. This year, Dhoni and Uthappa, both will be playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The Chennai franchise bought Uthappa for his base price of Rs 2 crore at the mega auctions held last month.

“Apart from Robin and Dhoni, whom everybody loves, I don’t follow any other cricketers,” Advani said, according to IANS. “I am not an ardent fan of cricket, but I regularly follow one player who is Robin Uthappa. He is my neighbour in Bengaluru and also my college friend,” Advani added.

“I watched last edition’s match in which Robin played a brilliant knock against Delhi Capitals. He played really well and hit many fours and sixes,” he stated.

In the last season, Chennai Super Kings entered a record ninth final of IPL after chasing down Delhi Capitals’ 172/5 with two balls to spare. Delhi put up a challenging total courtesy an 83-run stand of just 50 balls between skipper Rishabh Pant and Shimron Hetmyer.

But Ruturaj Gaikwad and Robin Uthappa stitched together a second-wicket partnership of 110 off 77 balls to guide CSK home.

While Gaikwad scored a scintillating 70 off 50 balls, Uthappa played a stellar knock of 63 off 44 deliveries to set up a memorable victory.

Earlier, Uthappa was one of Kolkata Knight Riders’ mainstays in their title-winning efforts in 2012 and 2014 with an aggregate run tally of 405 and 660 runs in the respective editions.

(With inputs from IANS)