Chennai Super Kings seemed to have been injected with a heavy dose of motivation when they came out to bat against the SunRisers Hyderabad.
Put in to bat, CSK Openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway didn't quite get off the blocks in a jiffy. They got the odd boundary while taking the singles and twos, but were always in control.
The openers really took off after the Powerplay overs, Gaikwad particularly taking a fancy to speedster Umran Malik, who looked a pale shadow of himself from the previous game.
Umran was not hitting the right lengths and Rutu, batting at his home ground, was happy to welcome him into the attack taking him for 13 runs.
Rutu used Umran's pace to find the boundaries regularly after the batter had logged his 9th IPL fifty. He even smacked the fastest ball of the season -- 154 km/h -- for a four down the ground.
Conway -- who wed during IPL 2022 -- took a fancy to offie Aiden Markram and hammered him for a four and a maximum while the batters tallied another massive over.
Both openers continued their assault on the SRH bowlers unabated -- Marco Jansen getting hit in the 15th over for 20 runs.
The runs flew in every direction of the field as the runs kept coming quickly. Even after Gaikwad's dismissal for 99 in the 18th over, Conway kept the scoreboard moving before smacking some delicious boundaries to take CSK to 202 for 2.
The openers gave CSK a solid start and did not once take their feet off the pedal. They kept the pressure on the SRH bowlers who just couldn't stop the juggernaut allowing CSK to go past the 200 run mark.
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