IPL 2021 | Wednesday’s knock was the most fluent I’ve felt also season, reveals Faf du Plessis

IPL 2021 | Wednesday’s knock was the most fluent I’ve felt also season, reveals Faf du Plessis

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Du Plessis scored an unbeaten 95 on Wednesday

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@ IPL T20

Chennai Super Kings batsman Faf du Plessis claimed that his unbeaten 95 against the Knight Riders on Wednesday was the most fluent he’d felt all season, and stressed that batting is all about rhythm. Du Plessis further lavished praise on his partner Gaikwad, who struck a blistering half-century.

Faf du Plessis showed glimpses of his best in the game against Rajasthan Royals where he struck a 17-ball 33, but the opening batsman, on Wednesday, played one of the best IPL knocks of his career. Opening the batting on a flat Wankhede deck, du Plessis carried his bat and obliterated the KKR bowlers to finish on 95*, the second highest individual score of his IPL career. Du Plessis’ knock featured nine fours and four humongous sixes and a feature of his innings was how smoothly he fared, carving through the KKR bowlers at will and pounding them into submission.

The former Proteas skipper was named Man of the Match for his efforts, and speaking in the post match presentation, the 36-year-old claimed that Wednesday’s knock was the best he’d batted all season. Du Plessis asserted that he was just ‘in the zone’ and stressed that he had the perfect rhythm.

“This was the most fluent I've felt so far,” du Plessis said on Wednesday.

“Felt the previous game things started to get better. Tonight was another step. It's about the rhythm of the flow of the hands.”

Right from game one, du Plessis batted in such a way that it made one feel that a big score was imminent, but that was not the case with his partner Ruturaj Gaikwad, who’d started his tournament off with scores of 5, 5 and 10. Gaikwad, for three games, struggled to hit the ball out of the square, but the youngster staged a remarkable turnaround on Wednesday as he played arguably the most eye-

knock of his IPL career, yet, to post 64 and get back in the runs. Du Plessis was in awe of Gaikwad’s strokemaking and gushed over the talent of the 24-year-old. 

“He's a fantastic young talent (Gaikwad). Those first couple of balls you can feel on edge as a batter. Beautiful to see him trust the timing and the technique. For a small guy he hits the ball a long way.”

Despite being an overseas player, du Plessis has been a through-and-through CSK man, having made his debut for the franchise way back in 2012 as a 28-year-old. In his time at Chennai, the South African has played under one captain, and one captain only, who has shown unending faith in him, and thus du Plessis expressed that he was ‘lucky’ to have had the opportunity to play under MS Dhoni.

“Been very lucky playing under MS for a long time. He knows what he's doing, pleasure to play under him.”

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