You don’t drop Ruturaj Gaikwad and escape unscathed. But Rachin Ravindra and Shivam Dube seem to be setting the bat at a different level altogether. Striking an out-of-the-world 246.66 (37 off 15 balls) in his first-ever IPL game, and following it up with an equally scintillating 20-ball 46 (strike rate of 230), Ravindra has shown he belongs at this level in the matter of two games.
And having already earned his stripes, Dube may have laid claim in the T20 World Cup selection mix by hacking five sixes in a 23-ball 51. Fifteen boundaries were hit overall by Chennai Super Kings but more devastating was the toll 11 sixes took on Gujarat Titans as they crashed to a 63-run defeat in Chennai on Tuesday.
Defeat looked imminent as early as the third over when Titans captain Shubman Gill was trapped plumb in front of middle and leg after he failed to connect a pull off a good length ball from Deepak Chahar. Wriddhiman Saha was middling the ball nicely till he was pinged on the helmet by a Chahar bouncer and ended up pulling the next ball — also a short one — to Tushar Deshpande at deep square-leg. But the 33,000 strong Chepauk crowd really found their voice when MS Dhoni turned back the clock to dive full length (2.27m, according to replays) to his right and pouch an edge flying off Vijay Shankar’s bat.
Requiring 127 off the last 60 balls, David Miller and Sai Sudharsan had no choice but to go for the bigger shots. A slowing down pitch however meant Miller couldn’t quite get under a flick off Deshpande, prompting Ajinkya Rahane to hare in from cow corner and dive forward to complete a stunning catch. Once again Sudharsan looked solid but didn’t have the shots to break free, finally holing out to Sameer Rizvi at long-on. Two wickets in the next two overs and even the usually feisty Rahul Tewatia had run out of partners and steam to mount an unlikely counterpunch.
In the end, it was a stroll for CSK, largely because of the start given by Ravindra. Two sixes off Umesh Yadav, a third off Azmatullah Omarzai in the fifth, he just wasn’t ready to let Gujarat Titans settle into any kind of rhythm. “I think as a player you always want to take down the powerplay. I got balls I could take on,” said Ravindra during the mid-innings break. The lengths were not always to blame. This wasn’t the typical Chepauk pitch too, with Ravindra saying the ball “skidded on nicely”. It allowed for an early offensive after Sai Kishore spilled an easy catch of Gaikwad at first slip in the first over.
Four consecutive overs saw Titans being belted for 55 runs, Gaikwad contributing just 13 of them. “It was more about showing intent,” said Ravindra. Perhaps too much intent in the first over of Rashid Khan finally led to a breakthrough, as Ravindra got an inside edge to a quicker delivery and instinctively started off for a single, completely unaware that the nimble Saha had collected the ball rolling towards him and whipped off the bails. That was cue for Gaikwad to take charge of the innings and he did that by rocking back and punching Khan through off for a sumptuous four.
Ajinkya Rahane couldn’t bolt off the blocks but Dube didn’t even wait for a ball after coming in at No.4, smoking Kishore through long-on for six before slogging him over deep midwicket for another big one. By the time Dube was dismissed, Daryl Mitchell had contributed just four out of the 57 runs CSK added in 35 balls. It ensured CSK batted in the middle like they had started, averaging 10-plus per over throughout the innings with Rizvi adding the final touches with a six-ball 14. Dhoni, like in the last match, didn’t have to come out to bat.
And if CSK continue to bat in this vein, Dhoni can well afford to put up his feet and enjoy the carnage unleashed by the top order.
