Gaikwad hit a quickfire knock from No. 3 © IPL Ruturaj Gaikwad remained tight-lipped about his side’s choice for his opening partner ahead of their season opener. CSK have historically liked stability at the top of the order to set a platform, and that was instrumental in their title wins in 2018 (Ambati Rayudu – Shane Watson), and 2021 (Ruturaj – Faf du Plessis). Ruturaj and Devon Conway pair were instrumental in CSK’s title-winning campaign in IPL 2023 scoring 849 runs at 56.60 for the first wicket scoring at nine/over. Rachin Ravindra, who stepped in for injured Conway last season, paired up with Ruturaj at the top of the order and scored marginally better (9.04/over) but averaged only 26.71. CSK scored at 8.72/over in Powerplay, below the season average and way short of the finalists SRH (11.17) and KKR (11.07). Earlier in the day, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head resumed from where they left off last season and hit 94 in the Powerplay and CSK rightly did not want to be left behind in the tempo at the start with fielding restrictions to exploit. The above was underlined when CSK paired Ravindra with Rahul Tripathi instead of Ruturaj, as their think tank weighed the impact that Tripathi could make at the top of the order as attested by coach Michael Hussey during a mid-game interview with the broadcaster. While he is among the top 50-over batters in the current game, Ravindra’s T20 game has yet to take off at the same levels as he struggled to get used to the pace of a slowish Chepauk track initially. But his skipper, batting one down, took the mantle and scored freely to get CSK ahead in the chase. Across the last two IPL editions since Impact Player’s inception, Ruturaj had a first-ten ball strike rate of 123.66 – ranked 24th among the 34 batters to have batted at least ten times in the top three. Today he was on 22 after his first 10 balls and 48 after his first 20 – both the highest for him at the same point in an IPL innings. He also registered his fastest IPL fifty (off 22 balls) and he attacked 72.7% of the balls he faced – the second highest for him at the time of reaching fifty in IPL. Ruturaj’s blitz ensured CSK broke the back of the chase in the Powerplay and gave Ravindra some much-needed breathing space to get into his innings and find his rhythm. This gave them some cushion later in the innings with the spin choke that followed as Ravindra batted through the chase to see them home. If the Chepauk track this season stays true to the tradition or even close to it, the flying starts in Powerplay could well make the difference in the final outcome.
