• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Rr Vs Csk Ruturaj Gaikwad Reaches Maiden Ipl Hundred With A Six Off The Last Ball

RR vs CSK | Ruturaj Gaikwad reaches maiden IPL hundred with a six off the last ball

On Saturday, 2 October, when Ruturaj Gaikwad entered the nervous nineties against Rajasthan Royals, there were still more than 12 balls left and his hundred looked like a certainty. But what happened after that was just mayhem, Ravindra Jadeja, who was batting on the other end, took strike on 14 of the 16 balls that were left to be bowled. But the man of the moment, Gaikwad got the strike just at the right moment when two balls were left and he needed five runs to get to his hundred. 

But when a slow ball bouncer was declared not wide, the target was clear, one ball and a six for Gaikwad to get to his first hundred, and what did the Punekar do? He pulled a back of the length delivery to a long 108 meters six in the banks of the Shiekh Zayed Stadium to give the air probably its biggest punch and celebrate one of the best innings ever played in IPL history. It was also a fitting end to what was a spectacle by Gaikwad. 

It has to be stressed upon that Ruturaj has scored 312 runs from his last five appearances at a massive average of 104 runs per innings. He currently holds the Orange Cap in this edition as well with 508 runs to his name from 12 innings.

The 24-year-old, who reached his fifty in 43 balls and was sluggish at the start (which has kind of become his mojo), but what happened in the next 17 balls, was just mind-blowing. Of the five sixes, he hit all of them after passing the fifty runs landmark and out of the nine fours, four came after fifty as well, meaning that he scored 46 of his last 51 runs in boundaries. 

Thanks to the hundred by Ruturaj, who is now also the Orange Cap holder with 508 runs in just 12 innings, the Super Kings reached 189-4 in their 20 overs.

Discover more
Top Stories
news

IPL 2021 | RR vs CSK: Gaikwad, Jadeja unleash brutal assault against the Royals

Chennai Super Kings batsmen Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ravindra Jadeja were on song during the match against Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi on Saturday evening after the left-right batting duo put up an unbeaten partnership of 55 runs in just 22 deliveries to help the side post a mammoth 189/4 in 20 overs. While opener Gaikwad was already set in the middle, Jadeja didn’t take much time to get his eye in and unleashed an assault against the RR pacers in the death overs. The left-hander notched up 32* off 15 which included four fours and a maximum while Gaikwad struck his maiden IPL ton. The right-handed opener remained not out at 101 off 80 deliveries after scoring a six on the final ball of the innings while he was on a personal score of 95. Gaikwad’s knock comprised five sixes and nine boundaries. Earlier, CSK were off to another decent start after Faf du Plessis and Gaikwad put 47 on the board for the first wicket before the Proteas batter departed for 25 off 19. Later, Suresh Raina who had come in at number three once again failed to leave a mark and was undone for 3 off 5 deliveries. Gaikwad was then joined by Moeen Ali in the middle. Both the players steadied the ship for the side and put up a stand of 57 runs before Moeen was eventually sent back in the hut for a 17-ball 21. For RR, it was Chetan Sakariya and Rahul Tewtia who were among the wickets. Tewatia picked up three wickets at the cost of 39 runs in 4 overs while Sakariya returned with figures of 1/31 in 4 overs. CSK have already qualified for the playoffs.

news

IPL 2021 | MI vs DC: Hits & Flops as daunting Delhi push defending champions to the brink

The Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals were the best two sides in the last edition of the Indian Premier League played in the UAE last year, but every time the Capitals faced the Rohit Sharma’s men, they were routed and that kind of showed the gap between the sides albeit they were just one position apart from each other. When Ravichandran Ashwin smashed Krunal Pandya on the very first ball of their second game against Mumbai, they had won both their games against Mumbai this year and Capitals’ coach Ricky Ponting was ecstatic and pumping his feast. His animated celebration spoke volumes of how much the wins over the Mumbai side mattered to the Capitals, who had a sort of stain on their reputation. We’ll analyse the best and the worst performances of the night between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians Hits Avesh Khan When the Capitals preferred Avesh Khan over Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma at the start of the ongoing edition of the IPL, there were murmurs on the reasons the Capitals were betting on a young Indian pacer at the expense of an experienced duo. 12 games deep into the season, with 21 wickets at 15 apiece, the pacer has repaid the faith and has gone on to become the “most improved player” in the Capitals squad in the eyes of the coach Ponting. His numbers this season would make any legend of the format feel proud and he has become an indispensable part of an all-strength bowling attack. On the day against the Mumbai Indians, he was tasked to stop the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock and the Mumbai skipper looked in ominous touch on the first few balls. Rohit has been a ferocious puller of the short ball and Avesh too was not unaware of his strength, which also has been his weakness this year. He lured Rohit with the back of length deliveries outside off before testing the half mark of the pitch and the batsman could not resist the bet. To be fair to Rohit, the shot was on, but it was just that Avesh had caught him cramped and beaten for pace. His next over was equally impressive against Suryakumar Yadav and de Kock to end the first spell with a bowling figure of 2-0-7-1. The reading of the bowling looked impressive even by that point but there was more on offer from the strong Indian quick. He returned with the second spell in the 16th over and once again he was all over the Pandya brothers (Krunal and Pandya) at the crease in that over. He conceded just one run in his third over. His best was yet to come and came with his best delivery of the day on the very first ball of his final over. Hardik was setting up to play him over the leg side by trying to pick the line. Avesh was hustling and getting a good pace to work with and he produced a searing yorker that also swung late in the air to pass through the gap between his two legs and hit the stumps. If he could only limit Mumbai’s ambitions in his first over, he killed Mumbai’s ambitions in his final over by picking up two big wickets giving just seven runs. He finished the game 4-0-15-3 and the words of Ponting who described Avesh in high praise during the interview midway through the game was vindicated by the end of the first innings itself. Axar Patel Since his inception in International cricket and the IPL, Axar Patel has always been looked at through the prism of Ravindra Jadeja, whom he was always competing with if he had to dream big. However, the left-hander started to turn the corner in the last few years and the year 2021 looks like to be the year he would unlock all his potential. Hence, when India picked him for the upcoming T20 World Cup despite the presence of Jadeja, there was no surprise in the views of people who follow cricket religiously. The Capitals were aware of de Kock’s frailties against spin and Pant disobeyed the match up game to throw the ball to Axar against the South African left-hander. After a sluggish start, he was eager to attack spinners, but Axar did not offer him the opportunity to score on the leg side. A wide delivery that dragged de Kock into playing an uppish drive that found Anrich Nortje at the short third man was the proof of Axar’s willingness to purchase wicket by flummoxing batsmen. From the other side, Suryakumar was going all guns blazing against Ravichandran Ashwin. However, he could not get along comfortably against Axar and frustratingly got out on a low full toss that dipped on him. He was on the money in all his third over and in the final over removed the only solid bloc of Mumbai batting in Saurabh Tiwary in his final over of the day to asphyxiate Mumbai in the company of Avesh Khan. Shreyas Iyer Shreyas Iyer has been criticised a lot in the recent past for his fear of throwing the wicket away and batting decisively to attack only when it’s needed. However, on the day against Mumbai, the Capitals desperately needed him to fulfil the job of an “anchor” perfectly while they were not chasing a lot of runs and that preservation of wickets was a bigger and tougher challenge. He walked out to bat in the fifth over Steve Smith was castled by Nathan Coulter-Nile and there was a task on his and Rishabh Pant’s hand if the Capitals were to win the game. He batted with immense passion and did not play ambitious shots while Pant was going for all money from the other end. Maybe, the Capitals were trying to play both attacking and sensible games simultaneously and had assigned suitable tasks to both Iyer and Pant. Pant perished in the process and left the ground when the Capitals were far away from the target. However, Iyer was calm as a cucumber and backed his methods all the way through with the belief that if he will be there till the end, the target would be achieved. Iyer has gone through a lot in the last few months and playing innings of such substance establishes his mental strength as a player which makes a serious difference in crunch moments and big tournaments such as the IPL. He was the captain of the Capitals last year when they were repetitively annihilated by Mumbai in the last season and hence playing a calm and assuring innings to take the Capitals over the line against Mumbai would have tasted much sweeter to him. Flops Rohit Sharma Rohit Sharma was in form of his life in the Test series against England his mastery with the bat would have given huge confidence to the Mumbai Indians ahead of the second phase of the IPL in UAE. The result however has been disappointing, to say the least, both for Rohit, the captain and also the batsman. He has laboured to get his timing right on slow pitches of Sharjah and UAE. On the day against the Capitals though, he was looking in magnificent touch with the bat as he despatched Nortje on the very first ball of the game with signature timing off his bat. He was looking to attack the pacers and turned out, he was attempting to throw pacers off their mark once too often and ultimately, in a big surprise, was beaten by in pace by Avesh Khan. Rohit has not scored 400 runs in the last couple of seasons but his lack of runs was masked by the brilliant run of form shown by the Mumbai side. He was also on and off the field with frequent injuries but now as the Mumbai Indians are walking on thin ice and could well be knocked out of the tournament when all his teammates are out of form, his failures with the bat are becoming more and more glaring and unceremonious. Krunal Pandya Krunal Pandya came out to bat when Kieron Pollard was dismissed by Anrich Nortje on the first ball of the 15th over and the left-hander was all at sea against the Proteas pacer on the next five balls of the day. He struggled to get off the mark and could open his account only on the 8th ball he faced. It was his and his brother’s struggle against Nortje and Avesh in the 15th and 17th over that choked the Mumbai batting when it should have been on the path of a flier. However, Hardik opened up his shoulder quickly enough in the next over but Krunal’s limitations as a batsman were ripped all open in the last phase of the game. He could neither get out nor hit out against immaculate Delhi pacers and only a miscalculation of allotment by Pant and over-ambitious flighted delivery by Ashwin, that he smashed out of the park on the final ball of the innings, made his score looks better than it actually was. The Capitals were desperate to win big in order to strengthen their position on the points table and narrow the run rate gap with the Super Kings. They could not manage to do that but achieved a win that has all but sealed a top-two spot on the points table. On the other hand, the defending champions, Mumbai Indians have compounded their issues in a big way and will need to win both their games along with reliance on other teams to lose their games to qualify to the next stage of the competition.