IPL 2021: Twitter Reacts As Faf Du Plessis Belligerence And Ruturaj Gaikwad's Artistic Strokeplay Helps Chennai Super Kings Beat SunRisers Hyderabad By Seven Wickets

IPL 2021: Twitter Reacts As Faf Du Plessis Belligerence And Ruturaj Gaikwad’s Artistic Strokeplay Helps Chennai Super Kings Beat SunRisers Hyderabad By Seven Wickets

MS Dhoni, Chennai Super Kings, SunRisers Hyderabad
Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad [Image-IPLT20]

A blistering 129-run-stand between Faf du Plessis [56 off 38 balls] and Ruturaj Gaikwad [75* off 44 balls] has helped Chennai Super Kings swat aside SunRisers Hyderabad by nine wickets in Delhi to make it in a five wins in a row in IPL 2021.

Chasing 172, Chennai Super Kings once again got off to a sensational start thanks to their opening duo of Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Du Plessis once again blazed away in the powerplay as he took SunRisers Hyderabad seamers to task by smashing as many as five boundaries in his 19-ball 34.

Ruturaj Gaikwad too chipped in with some brilliant strokes, and he, along with Du Plessis ensured that the Chennai Super Kings ended up with 50 runs in the powerplay.

IPL 2021: Twitter Reacts As Faf Du Plessis Belligerence And Ruturaj Gaikwad's Artistic Strokeplay Helps Chennai Super Kings Beat SunRisers Hyderabad By Seven Wickets
Faf du Plessis [Image-IPLT20]
The duo took Jagadeesh Suchith to task as they smashed a total of four fours and one six in his first two overs to take the total to 0/84 after 9.

Faf Du Plessis completed his third consecutive half-century in the 11th over as Chennai Super Kings went past the 1oo-run mark.

IPL 2021: Twitter Reacts As Faf Du Plessis Belligerence And Ruturaj Gaikwad's Artistic Strokeplay Helps Chennai Super Kings Beat SunRisers Hyderabad By Seven Wickets
Ruturaj Gaikwad [Image-IPLT20]
Gaikwad, on the other hand, continued to toy with the bowling with his imperious timing. The young opener brought up his 5th IPL fifty with a pull-off Suchith and he celebrated the milestone with a couple more boundaries off successive deliveries. The right-hander got a lucky reprieve in the next over when Jonny Bairstow shelled a tough caught-behind opportunity against Rashid Khan.

The young opener [75 off 44 balls] then proceeded to rub salt on Rashid’s wounds by pulling him both in front and back of square for a couple more boundaries.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rashid Khan
Rashid Khan castles Ruturaj Gaikwad. (Photo: BCCI/Screengrab)

The veteran leggie eventually got his man as he knocked over the opener with a ripper of a leg-break. Khan backed it up with the dismissals of Moeen Ali and Faf du Plessis in his last over to give SunRisers Hyderabad a glimmer of hope.

But the damage had already been done. And, the duo of Suresh Raina 17* off 15 balls] and Ravindra Jadeja [7* off 6 balls] ensured that Chennai Super Kings romped home to their 5th consecutive win by nine wickets.

 

Manish Pandey’s 50 and quickfire cameos from Kane Williamson and Kedar Jadhav helped SunRishers Hyderabad post 171 against Chennai Super Kings

Batting first, SunRishers Hyderabad got off to a poor start as England seam-bowling all-rounder Sam Curran got the better of his English teammate, Jonny Bairstow.

It all happened on the second ball of the 4th over when Sam Curran went around the wicket and dug the ball short.

Bairstow rocked back on the backfoot and proceeded to pull it towards deep square-leg but the swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batsman couldn’t time it the way he would have liked and picked out Deepak Chahar who completed a simple catch.

IPL 2021: Twitter Reacts As Faf Du Plessis Belligerence And Ruturaj Gaikwad's Artistic Strokeplay Helps Chennai Super Kings Beat SunRisers Hyderabad By Seven Wickets
Sam Curran dismissed Jonny Bairstow [Image-IPLT20]
Chennai Super Kings and especially their captain MS Dhoni would have breathed a sigh of relief to see the back of Jonny Bairstow given the fact that the former had shelled an easy caught-behind opportunity down the leg side on the second ball of the innings bowled by Deepak Chahar.

Bairstow had begun to flex his arms as he had smoked a couple of disdainful boundaries off Deepak Chahar in the over leading to his dismissal.

Chennai Super Kings, SunRisers Hyderabad
Manish Pandey [Image-IPLT20]
Manish Pandey came out with an attacking mindset as he set the ball rolling with a drive between backward and cover-point and a delightful backfoot punch as SunRisers Hyderabad managed 39 runs in the powerplay.

But with David Warner struggling for his timing and going at a strike rate of less than 100, SunRisers Hyderabad struggled to increase the tempo between overs 6-10, managing a mere 29 runs.

It was that sort of a day for David Warner where he just couldn’t hit anything out of the middle of the bat. And his frustration every time he picked out a fielder or mistimed a shot was truly visible.

Manish Pandey, who started off brilliantly, got bogged down in the middle-overs as he struggled to get the timing on his shorts. He finally got one out of the middle in the 13th over bowled by Shardul Thakur as he smoked the latter down the ground for a much-needed boundary.

Pandey got another four in the next over bowled by Jadeja as SunRisers Hyderabad brought up their 100. The Karnataka batsman also proceeded to complete his half-century (off 35 deliveries).

David Warner
David Warner [Image-IPLT20]
Warner, who completed his 10000th T20 run- only the 4th batsmen to achieve the feat- with a double in the 16th over, finally got one of the middle of the bat as he smoked Ngidi for a six over long-off for his 200th six.

Warner (57 off 55) smashed another six in the next over bowled by Jadeja over deep-midwicket to become the first IPL batsman to rack up 50 half-centuries.

Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis pulls off a stunner [Image-IPLT20]
He eventually holed out in trying to up the ante against Lungi Ngidi in the 18th over. Manish Pandey (61 off 46) also perished in the same over thanks to a stunning catch by Faf du Plessis at wide long-on.

IPL 2021: Twitter Reacts As Faf Du Plessis Belligerence And Ruturaj Gaikwad's Artistic Strokeplay Helps Chennai Super Kings Beat SunRisers Hyderabad By Seven Wickets
Kane Williamson [Image-IPLT20]
The double scalps proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Orange Army as Kane Williamson and Kedar Jadhav got quickfire runs to ensure that the 2016 champions got to the 171-run mark.

Williamson smashed four fours and one six in his rapid 10-ball 26 while Kedar Jadhav too chipped in with a valuable 4-ball 12.

 

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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Yash Mittal

Just a student of this beautiful game called cricket. Writer. Storyteller.

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