If there is a dream form and a breakthrough tournament that knocks hard on the selectors’ doors, it is what Ruturaj Gaikwad has had in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2022 tournament, which he ended with a century in the final too, making it four hundreds in his last 5 innings.
This century in the final against Saurashtra, Gaikwad might agree, was the toughest ton he’s scored in this tournament. Because of the spicy nature of the pitch – which even saw Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat bowl a terrific spell of 1/25 in 10 overs – and Gaikwad battled hard at the top, first for survival, and then exploded in the latter half of his innings.
Gaikwad may have scored 108 runs off 131 balls, but it was a tale of two different innings in one innings. The right-handed opener was slow to get off the blocks and reached his first 50 off 96 balls, but then a flurry of big hits saw him rumble his next 50 runs off just 29 balls. Gaikwad was looking in ominous touch and could have hurt Saurashtra even more, but for a run-out that cut his stay short.
Upon completing his century, via a brilliant pulled six over deep mid-wicket to bowler Chirag Jani, Ruturaj Gaikwad celebrated his milestone with a big roar, indicating his relief of battling hard at the start of his innings and then making it count for himself and his team.
Here is the video of Ruturaj Gaikwad’s celebration after raising his hundred:
HEAR HIM ROAR! 🦁🔥pic.twitter.com/sanur0N3RJ
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) December 2, 2022
Maharashtra lost the momentum after their captain’s departure and ended with a total of 248. The fact that the second-highest score in their innings was of 37 shows the importance of getting you eye in on this surface, which Gaikwad did with great endurance and then made it count to register another century, and end up as the second-highest score in the tournament.
In just 5 innings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2022, Gaikwad scored 660 runs at an average of 220, registering 4 centuries, including a best of 220*. N Jagadeesan will bow out as the top-scorer in the tournament with 830 runs in 8 innings with 5 tons to his name, including a world-record shattering 277.
