While the batters were struggling to time the ball in the day game between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals on a sluggish Sharjah surface, the men with the bat made merry on a true Abu Dhabi wicket as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) smashed the highest score of the second half of IPL 2021.
CSK openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf Du Plessis got their team to a steady start getting their team through to the powerplay. Rahul Tewatia got the wicket of Du Plessis in the very next over and the Royals started making their impression on the game.
Gaikwad was playing run-a-ball but didn't lose his shape at any point and didn't get frustrated as not long before Tewatia sent back Suresh Raina as well.
Gaikwad got an able ally in Moeen Ali as once the former was into his 30s, he was watching the ball well, finding the gaps, and timing it to perfection. Moeen got into his innings smashing a four and a six off RR debutant Mayank Markande but Tewatia in his final over sent back Moeen to put breaks on their scoring.
Gaikwad brought up his half-century off 43 balls but CSK kept losing wickets at the other end. In came Ravindra Jadeja, he obviously came to finish the innings, that was his role but Gaikwad turned tides and went absolutely berserk.
After a six off Tewatia, Gaikwad took on another debutant for RR, Akash Singh and hit two fours and a six off his over as he was now on 80 off 52, scoring 30 runs off his last nine balls.
A four of Sakaria and a six off Mustafizur meant, he was inching closer to a maiden ton but the fun just had begun as Jadeja took the centre stage now. One boundary of Mustafizur in the 18th over and one off Sakaria in the 19th but he toyed with the Bangladesh pacer in the final over of the innings.
Jadeja slid a little towards off-stump made a room as he hit a couple of premeditated shots towards leg side and CSK's score went beyond 180. Gaikwad didn't get strike for long and got two balls to score five runs to get to hos century. He missed the first but smashed a six to complete a fantastic knock and now was the orange cap holder for this season.
Former India batter and Punjab Kings batting coach Wasim Jaffer reacted to the onslaught with a hilarious meme and as did the fans. Here are some of the reactions:
