Twitter Reactions: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis lift CSK to top of the table with fifth consecutive win

CSK record their fifth consecutive win to reclaim the top spot in the table.

By Pratyay Tiwari

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4 Min Read

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis
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Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

A magnificent 129-run opening stand, the third-best for Chennai Super Kings in IPL history, between Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad killed a 172-run chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad to take the Chennai Super Kings to their fifth victory on the trot, with which they reclaim the top spot in the table.

Winning the toss on what the opponent skipper MS Dhoni found a tacky surface, David Warner inserted his team, eyeing to put runs on the board. That it happened was thanks to a late blitz from Kane Williamson, who, much like CSK, made batting look funnily easy right after a duo that had hung in for 87 balls in the middle struggled to find any momentum.

Warner, Manish Pandey drag along

Deepak Chahar would have had Jonny Bairstow on the second ball of the game had MS Dhoni not dropped a regulation catch behind. Trying to trickle the ball on the leg-side, Bairstow healthily edged one, only for it to somehow pop out of Dhoni’s gloves.

That drop, however, did not prove too costly as Bairstow (7 off 5) miscued a pull against Sam Curran and found Chahar at backward square leg a couple of overs later. The CSK bowlers did not strike for the next 14.3 overs, although what they did manage to perfection was keeping both the batters under serious control. Unable to put bat to ball, a vexed Warner grunted multiple times in his uncharacteristic 55-ball 57 knock as he failed to find his shots.

SRH, who hit only four boundaries during the field restrictions, got only four more and three sixes in the 106-run second-wicket partnership. There were a couple of landmarks that Warner notched up off successive deliveries as he became only the fourth player to get to the 10,000 T20 runs, while a six in the 15th over took him to 200 IPL sixes.

On return, Pandey scored 61 off 46, including five fours and a six, although both the batsmen struggled aplenty in the middle phase, hoicking and heaving wildly at times and making no connection.

Williamson’s blitz 

Both Warner and Pandey took the exit in a space of just four balls as the former holed out Ngidi to Jadeja, and du Plessis grabbed a sensational diving catch in the deep to end Pandey’s stay. The 13-ball 37-run partnership that followed did, however, provide the much-needed momentum to SRH.

On a surface where two of his teammates hardly found going, Williamson struck a 10-ball 26, including four fours and a six to take his team past 170. He slammed Shardul Thakur 4, 6, 4, 4 in the 20-run penultimate over, while Kedar Jadhav picked a four and six off Curran in the last over.

Du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad sail over

Continuing with their sensational run of form at the top, both du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad made hay, hitting boundaries at will in stark contrast to their opponents. When the bowlers went back-of-a-length, the duo cut and pulled them square to pick fours. Anything full was not spared as they gloriously drove through cover and extra cover. If the spinners went even marginally short, they rocked and pummeled them off the backfoot, apart from stepping out to meet the ball.

Gaikwad notched his half-century, off 37 balls, with a four off Suchith, and he struck two more to make it a hat-trick  in the 12th over, which produced 15 runs. The right-hander was in that kind of a mood that he did not spare even Rashid Khan, smacking him for three fours in the immediately following over. However, Rashid had his revenge in the same over as he knocked down his off-stump to end both a sensational 44-ball 75 knock, featuring 12 fours, and the whopping 129-run opening stand.

Rashid gave a mild hiccup in his double-wicket final over, when Moeen Ali (15 off 8) holed out to long-on and du Plessis (56 off 38) was trapped lbw on the immediately following delivery, but Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja remained unbeaten on 17 and 7 to gun down the remaining 24 runs with nine balls to spare.

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