CSK opener Ruturaj Gaikwad hits a six against KKR in Dubai on Thursday.
Chennai Super Kings opener Ruturaj Gaikwad showed he has enough spark in him for a youngster as the 23-year-old right-hander scored back-to-back fifty in IPL 2020 as the side took on Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.
Ruturaj shot four boundaries and three sixes while reaching his 50 in 37 balls as he steered CSK towards a big 173 total at Dubai International Stadium.
Chasing the challenging total on a sluggish surface, Ruturaj Gaikwad with his new opening partner Shane Watson gave CSK a strong start with 44 runs in the first six overs. Gaikwad did most of the scoring at this stage with three boundaries and a six.
However, the run rate significantly came down post-powerplay with the introduction of KKR spin duo Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine into bowling attack.
The pressure of the rising run rate soon got to Watson (14 off 19) who mistimed Varun’s lofted delivery straight to Rinku Singh at long-on in the eighth over to end the 50-run opening-wicket stand.
However, KKR skipper Eoin Morgan made an error of giving the 10th over to part-timer Rana, who was taken for 14 runs by Ambati Rayudu with three boundaries as the pressure withered away from the duo.
This allowed Ruturaj to open up his arms and he shot pacer Lockie Ferguson for a boundary and a six in the next over and soon reached his 50 with a single as CSK closed on 100-run mark.
