The Chennai Super Kings found themselves in big trouble in the opening game of the second part of the Indian Premier League, but the opener Ruturaj Gaikwad held the innings together with Ravindra Jadeja. Later on, he accelerated with incredible shots off Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult to take the Super Kings to a defendable total.
The head coach of the Super Kings, Stephen Fleming has commended Gaikwad for his match-winning innings against the Mumbai Indians. He outlined his brilliant finish to the last season in UAE where the Super Kings had struggled as a team behind his rapid rise to success.
He said that Gaikwad got into the groove only in the ending phase of the tournament last year when all was over the side in IPL 2020 and also admitted mistake on the part of the team management for “rushing him after recovery from Covid-19”.
"We had big tabs on him since last season and I think we rushed him a bit too early after recovering from COVID. I think the way he finished in Dubai last year in the IPL set him up for the start of this season. In a big match, it’s quite special for him to play such a big innings," Fleming said in a virtual press conference.
He also addressed the injury concerns to Ambati Rayudu, who was hit on the hand by express delivery from Adam Millen early on in the innings and Deepak Chahar, who was struggling to bowl his final over of the game.
Rayudu could not bat after taking that blow and was retired hurt. Fleming confirmed that the right-hander did not suffer a fracture and instead started recovery from a “bad bruise”.
On Chahar, Fleming said that the pacer went through cramps and not any serious injury concerns.
"It’s a bad bruise and he lost a little bit of power on the grip. Thankfully, nothing's broken. With Chahar he had cramps, but we will check that out tomorrow," he said.
The Super Kings restarted their IPL 2021 campaign with a big win over the Mumbai Indians and went past the Delhi Capitals to the top of the points table with six wins out of the eight games played this season.