There is no stopping Ruturaj Gaikwad. The 24-year old batsman maintains his outstanding form in the ongoing Vijay Hazare 2021-22 Trophy. Gaikwad hit his third successive century for Maharashtra against Kerala at the Mahdavo Scindia Cricket Ground in Rajkot on Saturday.
The Maharashtra opener set the stage on fire scoring 124 from 129 deliveries. His innings was comprised of nine boundaries and three over boundaries. In the 46th over, Kerala’s Suresh Visheshwar dismissed Gaikwad after the batsman was caught by wicket-keeper Sanju Samson. Maharashtra eventually posted a concrete total of 291/8 in 50 overs against Kerala.
The Pune-born batsman looked determined to do something fruitful from the very beginning of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He scored a blistering 136 form just 112 deliveries against Madhya Pradesh, in Rajkot and helped his side to successfully chase 329 runs. Gaikwad hit 14 boundaries and 4 sixes in that innings.
In the second game against Chhatishgarh, Gaikwad scored 154 from only 143 balls to guide Maharashtra to 8-wicket victory. The Maharashtra opening batsman has till now scored a total of 414 runs from the three group matches.
Ruturaj Gaikwad needs one more hundred in this tournament to join a lucrative list of batsmen who hit 4 hundreds in the domestic 50-over tournament- Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal and Prithvi Shaw. Moreover, Padikkal became the only batter to hit 4 successive hundreds in a single season of Vijay Hazare Trophy - a feat that Gaikwad can match if he gets another hundred against Uttarakhand in their fourth match on Sunday.
Gaikwad is surely setting up a well built platform for himself to get selected in the Indian ODI squad for the 3-match series in South Africa scheduled to be played in January 2022. The Chennai Super Kings batter was one of the 4 players retained by the 4-time champions, for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Gaikwad won the Orange Cap for the most number of runs scored in IPL 2021, notching 635 runs in CSK's run to the title.
