‘When it rains, it pours’: Twitter lauds Ruturaj and Conway’s record breaking opening partnership

Chennai is playing Hyderabad at the MCA Stadium in Pune in the 46th match of the Indian T20 League 2022. Kane Williamson won the toss and put the men in yellow to bat. What the fans witnessed next was nothing short of carnage.

Chennai opted to go with Devon Conway as the opener along with their first and prime option Ruturaj Gaikwad. The new opening pair made MS Dhoni’s return to captaincy memorable with a grand batting display.

In what looked like batting heaven the duo made a feast of the Hyderabad bowlers. At the beginning of the innings, Rurturaj Gaikwad looked to be the aggressor and allowed Conway to settle down. In the first six overs, Chennai scored just 40 runs and made the stage ready to launch at the bowlers. As the duo got an idea of the conditions and a measure of the bowlers, they started increasing the scoring rate.

While Conway started taking calculated risks Gaikwad was bringing down hell on the bowlers. He completed his half-century in just 31 deliveries and was looking in a dream touch. While going steadily at the other end Devon Conway also brought up his half-century off 39 deliveries. As both crossed their landmarks, they started launching at the bowlers together.

Ruturaj looked all set for a brilliant century but was deprived of it by T Natarajan. Gaikwad played a cut off Natarajan that ended up straight in the hands of Bhuvneswar Kumar. He looked disappointed to have missed the century but that does not take away anything from his innings of 99 runs from 57 deliveries. This marked the end of an epic partnership of 182 runs from the duo.

Conway however stayed unbeaten at the end of the innings scoring 85 runs off 55 deliveries hitting eight fours and four sixes. Chennai finished with a mammoth total of 202 runs from their 20 overs.

Speaking of the partnership, they stumbled many records on their way to the stellar partnership.

Let us take a look at what are the records that were crashed by the Chennai openers.

1. Highest Partnership against Hyderabad in the history of ITL– Previous best was 157 runs by Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in 2016.
2. Highest partnership at Pune-Previous best was 158 runs by Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa in 2017.
3. Highest partnership in ITL 2022– Previous best was 165 runs by Robin Uthappa and Shivam Dube.
4. Highest opening partnership, as well as the highest partnership for CSK in all ITL– Previous best was 181* by Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis
5. Highest opening partnership in ITL 2022: Previous best was 155 runs by Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal

Here is how Twitter reacted to the epic partnership

That 99 is more than ten tons.
RESPECT @Ruutu1331
Gaekwad Conway Highest opening partnership this IPL 182 runs#CSKvSRH pic.twitter.com/Vbm4D05Fll

— Kasturi Shankar (@KasthuriShankar) May 1, 2022

https://twitter.com/SaranGowda/status/1520792709035819009?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

Very unfortunate Ruutu Ruutu…. @Ruutu1331 . What a knock it has been 99 runs with Conway. @ChennaiIPL @msdhoni #CSKvSRH #TATAIPL2022 pic.twitter.com/GY7KbjaieV

— Thiru Muthu Kumaran S (@Thiru_Muthu_K_S) May 1, 2022

https://twitter.com/TheRedKnight09/status/1520792652228497408?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

https://twitter.com/thebharatarmy/status/1520791738167693312?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

https://twitter.com/Diksha_7289/status/1520791931583811584?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

https://twitter.com/not_kushaagra/status/1520787668094701569?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

https://twitter.com/LMKMovieManiac/status/1520787626831204353?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

https://twitter.com/Megapspk1/status/1520777991273390081?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

What a fantastic knock by #ruturajgaekwad, 99(57) that has taken #CSK to a position of strength!
#CSKvSRH #ruturajgaekwad

— Sreedhar Pillai (@sri50) May 1, 2022

https://twitter.com/Sahil_Slays/status/1520791249267036161?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw

https://twitter.com/ganeshcomplex/status/1520790417801093121?s=20&t=te7ziFJEgxBFfjRQVQNOLw