Chennai Super Kings' veteran batter was all guns blazing with his blistering knock to help his side post a colossal target of 211 against Lucknow Super Giants in an IPL match on Thursday (March 31). Uthappa dominated from the word go as he came out to open the innings alongside Ruturaj Gaikwad. Uthappa cleared his intent right from the beginning as he started by hitting Avesh Khan for back-to-back boundaries off the first two balls and looked in tremendous touch at the crease.
In his rollicking 27-ball 50, he smacked eight boundaries and one big one as he reached his fifty with a strike rate of 200. With this he completed his 26th IPL fifty.
Mere in the poweplay, Uthappa belted 45 runs from the 21 balls that he faced. This was the second time he did this in his IPL stint so far.
The defending champions were able to put 73 runs on the board for the loss of one wicket after the end of the first six overs. CSK got off to a flyer thanks to Uthappa who looked like he was playing like a man possessed, having just one mission, to score big runs for his team despite losing his opening partner cheaply for 1.
Uthappa after playing a sensational knock was trapped lbw by Ravi Bishnoi right after he completed his half-century. Moeen was cleaned up by Avesh Khan on 35 (22). Ambati Rayudu along with Shivam Dube then added a crucial partnership for the fourth wicket, before it was broken by Bishnoi. He cleaned up Rayudu on 27 off 20. Shivam Dube then rose to the occasion and played an instrumental knock with 49 off 30 as he was further removed by Avesh Khan. Captain Ravindra Jadeja then walked in to chip in with 17 off 9 before walking towards the pavilion. The man-in-form and former skipper MS Dhoni (16 off 6) then played a cameo to spur CSK to post a big total 210/7 and put LSG batters a tough target to chase.
