At the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday, Ruturaj Gaikwad wrote a huge piece of history by becoming the first-ever skipper of the Chennai Super Kings to hit a century in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). During CSK’s home IPL 2024 encounter against Lucknow Super Giants, he reached the triple-figure mark and even broke MS Dhoni’s five-year record in the competition.
In honor of the 17th anniversary of the first IPL match played at Chepauk, Gaikwad produced an innings that was a connoisseur’s pleasure on the memorable evening. Early in the game, the hosts lost Ajinkya Rahane, who was well stumped by KL Rahul off Matt Henry, but Gaikwad maintained composure to execute a traditional knock of timing the ball through the gaps for fours. And it was well encapsulated in the first fifty runs he scored in the game, which included zero fours even though he was hitting over 180 at that point.
In particular, Gaikwad was instrumental in forging productive partnerships with his teammates, scoring 45 runs with Daryl Mitchell (who took over for an injured Rachin Ravindra) and 52 with Ravindra Jadeja (17). However, the pressure shifted off his shoulders completely when Shivam Dube walked in.
The left-hander dominated the LSG attack, hitting sixes whenever he pleased. Gaikwad, who reached 99 with a six from Yash Thakur over long-on, was little offended by the aggressive attitude. Gaikwad then blasted a boundary past further cover to achieve his century. It was his first century in India and his second in the IPL.
With the hit, Gaikwad beat Dhoni’s previous best score of 84 from the 2019 season to become the first skipper of CSK to reach a century in the IPL. Along with Shane Watson and Murali Vijay, Gaikwad holds the record for most IPL tons scored by CSK hitters.
KL Rahul’s 132* for Kings XI Punjab in 2020 still tops the record, with Gaikwad’s final total of an undefeated 108 currently tying for sixth place among IPL captain individual scores.
With a century partnership in only 46 balls, Gaikwad and Dube enabled CSK to set a target of 211 against LSG.
