'Faf du Plessis will be jealous' - Ruturaj Gaikwad gets sarcastic after his record partnership with Devon Conway

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) star opener Ruturaj Gaikwad joked about his record-breaking first wicket partnership along with the New Zealand batter Devon Conway against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), stating that his former opening partner Faf du Plessis might have been a little jealous seeing him and the Kiwi opener putting up a show for the Yellow Army.

It may be noted that both Gaikwad and Conway broke the opening stand run record of Du Plessis and Shane Watson from 2020 for CSK. While Gaikwad and Conway stitched a 182-run opening stand on May 1, they surpassed the previous record of 181* runs by the former CSK opening duo in the game against KXIP (now PBKS).

It feels nice to have the record: Ruturaj Gaikwad

“I think Faf would be jealous a little bit. But it’s okay. It feels nice to have the record.” Ruturaj told CSK TV after Chennai’s 13-run win over Hyderabad.

“In powerplay, we didn’t start well but I kept telling him that we are in and after that, it’s going to be pretty much easy for us to get going. I reminded him the wicket is slightly tough and we both carry on as long as we want. He also showed great courage to take on the bowlers. Very happy for him because he was eager to perform for this lovely franchise” he added.

Both Ruturaj and Conway started their innings slowly. However, as soon as both of them were set, it was an excellent batting display from the batters. To note, Gaikwad was the aggressor between the two batters, but both kept hitting boundaries in almost every over during the first innings.

The Indian opener fell just one short of a hundred. However, the Kiwi opener remained unbeaten on 85 from 55 deliveries as CSK posted a match-winning total of 202. The defending champions will now take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their group stage encounter of IPL 2022. The match will be played on May 4 (Wednesday).