Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, who succeeds MS Dhoni as the new captain of the franchise, achieved a great feat last night against the Lucknow Super Giants.
Gaikwad’s century in the first innings last night helped him achieve a record that even Dhoni could not achieve in his 16 seasons as captain of the franchise, which is bidding to win its sixth IPL title this season. But despite Gaikwad’s century, CSK could not win the match against LSG.
The South Indian team was looking to move to second place in the IPL table with a win last night, but despite their best efforts, the Super Giants put a damper on their expectations.
Ruturaj Gaikwad and his team were stunned by the way LSG chased down the target of 211 in 19.3 overs, thanks to Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis’ sensational 124 off 63 balls.
Nicholas Pooran and Deepak Hooda also contributed with their quick knocks of 35 and 17 with strike rates of over 220.
Ruturaj Gaikwad becomes first CSK captain to score a century
Over the years, MS Dhoni has been the only one to captain the Chennai Super Kings consistently in every season they have participated. The likes of Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja have also captained CSK in different timelines, but Dhoni is the one the team management keeps turning to.
However, none of the previous three captains could score a century as a leader, but Ruturaj Gaikwad did so, in just his eighth IPL match as a full-time captain.
After losing the toss and batting first, the Super Kings were able to score 211 as a target, en route to Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 108* over 60 and Shivam Dube’s score of 60+.
Initially, it did not look like CSK would be able to break 200 as Ajinkya Rahane and Daryl Mitchell left the crease during the powerplay overs for 1 and 11 each.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja then played an extremely slow innings before bowling his wicket to Mohsin Khan for 16 off 19. Shivam Dube and Ruturaj Gaikwad had a big task on their hands and the duo ensured that CSK put at least 200 on the board .
They accounted for a 104-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Dube was run out on the fourth ball of the 20th over after a knock of 66 off 27.
He was replaced by MS Dhoni, who took advantage of the only ball he faced and scored a 4 that took CSK to a score of 210.
Gaikwad unseats Faf du Plessis on another list
With his 108* last night, Ruturaj Gaikwad also surpassed former opener Faf du Plessis in terms of CSK batsmen with the most 50+ scores in the Indian Premier League. du Plessis left RCB with 16 fifty+ scores, while Gaikwad scored his 17th fifty+ against LSG.
He also moved into second place in the Orange Cap standings and the only thing he couldn’t do was help his team to its fifth win of the season. Chennai will now host Hyderabad in their next home league phase match.