Class 8 Dropout, With No Cricket Knowledge, Wins Rs 1.5 Crore In IPL Fantasy Gaming; Thought It Was Fraud

When luck favours one never knows. That same was the case with Deepu Ojha. The resident of Kohda village in Bihar's Arrah district, struck gold, winning a cash prize Of 1.5 crore rupees by playing IPL fantasy gaming on a mobile gaming app during the KKR vs RCB IPL match on Sunday. He picked Andre Russell as the captain in the match. He is a class 8 dropout and works in a garage as a car mechanic. 

By his own confession, Ojha has not idea about cricket and picked the team just by chance as he had not other work to do. "I felt very good. Could not believe. Thought it was fraud and no money ever comes on such apps. I work in a garage. I have been playing fantasy gaming for the last six months. On Sunday, I had no work and made the team. I saw it was a match between KKR and RCB. I had little knowledge about the players," Ojha told PTI.

He is yet to decide on what he will do with the amount. 

Talking about the IPL game, KKR beat RCB by 1 run in a thriller. But the major talking point from the match was a full toss that took the wicket of Virat Kohli.  The new Hawk-Eye technology to determine no-balls for height was used when TV umpire Michael Gough deemed a waist-high delivery from KKR's Harshit Rana fair. Kohli was in full flow, scoring a brisk 18 runs off just seven balls, before Harshit ana took a return catch to dismiss the star batter, as it became a pivotal moment in RCB's narrow one-run loss while chasing a challenging target of 223 at Eden Gardens.

Talking about the dismissal, KKR's Phil Salt said: "It's split opinion, we know that. From our point of view, we feel like we may have got away with one there. It's the rub of the greens, one of those calls," said the world No 2 T20I batter at the Knight Golf event.

The Englishman further said leveraging technology in this manner is ultimately beneficial for the game as he hinted at the possibility of a future review to assess the effectiveness of these technological advancements.

"They brought that data in, the no-ball data, for exactly that purpose. I feel like in 12 months' time maybe there'll be some sort of review. Is it working? Is it not working? Is it a new thing to the game? "But personally, from a player's point of view, any time you're using data and technology to be more precise and get the right decisions, that's a good thing for the game," Salt said.

With PTI inputs

Topics mentioned in this article

Kolkata Knight Riders Royal Challengers Bengaluru Andre Russell IPL 2024 Cricket