Shivam Dube slammed 95* against RCB to hand CSK their 1st win this season after 5 losses.
After losing the toss, CSK was asked to bat first and lost two early wickets. Then Shivam Dube came in to bat with the team precariously placed at 36/2, and on the other end was the experienced Robin Uthappa, and they took responsibility for guiding the team to a competitive total.
Shivam started a counter-attack by taking on the spinners. Glenn Maxwell, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Shahbaz Ahmed were all hit for huge sixes. The left-hander was batting at 43 when Mohammed Siraj dropped a tough chance. He brought up his fifty off just 30 balls.
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Even against fast bowlers, the 28-year-old got the upper hand. Dube, who had gone berserk by that point, plundered Akash Deep for 18 runs in the 18th over. In the final over of the innings, Josh Hazlewood was handed the ball but he too was hit for a couple of massive sixes.
In the last ball of the innings, 6 runs were needed for the leftie to reach his maiden IPL ton and in an attempt to go over the top, the ball went to the long-off fielder who dropped it.
Although he missed out on what would have been a well-deserved century, remaining unbeaten on 95, Uthappa (88) and he had done their jobs, adding 165 runs together. RCB tried their best, but couldn't overhaul the total, and the Chennai team won the match by 23 runs.
Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag argued on Cricbuzz that Dube's performance of 95* should be looked at as a century, using batting legend Sachin Tendulkar as an example.
Fellow panelist RP Singh then recalled the 2011 World Cup semis at Mohali against Pakistan, where Tendulkar top-scored for Men in Blue with 85 and India went on to win that game by 29 runs, and Sachin was declared Player of the Match.
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Sehwag then said,“I was also part of that match and so many other matches. In fact, paaji (Tendulkar) himself told us. It was the semi-final against Pakistan and he was dismissed in the 80s. When he came to the dressing he laughed slightly. I asked why he was laughing, he got out. He said, 'Good that I didn't make a century. Who knows we could lose the game'.
“He is also human. He understands that it is winning that matters and not the century. And this is coming from a player who has scored 100 international centuries. So I would say that his (Dube's) 95 is equivalent to a century,” he said.
(Cricbuzz Inputs)