Chennai Super Kings (CSK) coach Stephen Fleming lauded opener Ruturaj Gaikwad’s maiden IPL century against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their latest encounter in Abu Dhabi of the ongoing IPL 2021.
His 101* had helped CSK put up a brilliant 189/4 in 20 overs. Gaikwad, who hails from Maharashtra, hit 5 sixes and 6 fours and got to his century by hitting a six off the last ball of CSK innings.
"It was a magnificent inning, it is not many times that you have a centurion in your side and come up with a loss. The team will celebrate an individual performance that was of high class. Another continuation of the young man's journey, our expectations have always been high, others are just starting to realize why we had such high regard for him but his performance against RR was magnificent," said CSK coach Fleming.
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"We are really proud of him and his progress and the way he is playing is outstanding," he added.
Unfortunately for CSK, RR went hammer and tongs after the huge total and with half-centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube, managed to chase down the target with 15 balls to spare in their innings.
Talking about the same, Fleming said: "We were just outplayed, in the second half we had a team that took it up to us. The only criticism can be that our adjustments were not as good as it needed to be. There was some fine batting, when you score 190, a team has to play well and they came out at us hard and they put us under a lot of pressure. We have to reset pretty quickly, we were just outplayed in the second half."
"My observation was that as the dew settled, the pitch just got better and better. The second half of our innings showed that as well. It is not bad to have a high-scoring game like this and be tested. If RR continues with this approach and attitude, they are going to finish well," he signed off.
CSK will next square off against Delhi Capitals on Monday at the Dubai International Stadium.
(ANI inputs)
