Gaikwad hit nine fours and five sixes during his stay in the middle and literally, never lost his shape while playing the big shots. All of them were clean hits and Lara was happy to see how Ruturaj paced his innings. The opening batsman scored his first 30 runs off 29 balls and then took on the opposition bowling attack with utter ease in the second half of the innings.
“Yeah, he could have been 135 if he had got more strike in the end overs. But it was a complete show of batsmanship. That’s what I like about him, seeing how he put that innings together, how he surged in the second half of the innings. He was just tremendous to watch,” Lara said about Ruturaj Gaikwad while speaking to Star Sports.
Lara terms Gaikwad’s knock as remarkable and unbelievable
Further, Brian Lara also noted that the 24-year-old CSK opener played proper cricketing shots and showed the world it is not only about slogging in T20 cricket. Lara is so impressed with his heroics against RR that he also put him KL Rahul’s category of batsmanship.
“He shows that you can play good cricket shots and still score big runs. And that’s what I am proud of as a batsman. It was just remarkable and unbelievable. I will put him now in the KL Rahul category,” the 52-year-old added.
Unfortunately though Gaikwad’s innings ended in a losing cause with the Royals’ batters making a mockery of the 190-run chase and gunning it down in the 18th over itself. Nevertheless, Gaikwad was awarded the Player of the Match for his splendid efforts with the bat.
