Ruturaj fails to equal Kohli's required by just one four
Highlights
- Gaikwad scored 57 off 35 deliveries at a strike rate of 162.86
- The brisk 57 that Gaikwad scored is his career best in T20Is so far
- Ruturaj smashed 7 fours and 2 sixes in the innings that he played
Ruturaj Gaikwad has been under the radar for not performing in the Indian Blues. The Mumbai-based batsman who had a dismal run in IPL 2022 was handed over the chance to open the innings for India in the absence of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma but could not deliver according to his talent. Before the third T20I, Gaikwad scored a total of 24 runs in two innings. Struggling against pace, Ruturaj was dismissed by Wayne Parnell in the first T20I and by Anrich Nortje in the second T20I.
In the ongoing third T20I, Gaikwad came out all guns blazing and took the attack to the Proteas team. Leaving his bad patch behind Gaikwad smashed 50 runs off 30 deliveries. In this blistering knock that he played, Ruturaj smashed 5 consecutive fours off Anrich Nortje and accelerated India's scoring rate. In this process, Gaikwad had the chance to equal a record set by Virat Kohli but missed out just by one boundary.
In his earlier days of international cricket, Virat Kohli played an instrumental knock against Sri Lanka at Hobart where India had to chase 321 under 38 overs. Young Virat Kohli came out all guns blazing and struck a blistering 133 off 86 deliveries. In this process, Kohli smashed Malinga for six consecutive boundaries and left him bamboozled. The Chennai Super Kings batsman might not have his eyes set on this record but he came pretty close to the feat that Kohli achieved.
