CHENNAI: When Ruturaj Gaikwad revealed that he would be opening the batting for Chennai Super Kings alongside Sanju Samson to the official broadcaster last week, the anticipation was palpable. On one side, CSK had their anointed prodigy-turned-captain Gaikwad. On the other side was someone who has always considered Chennai home away home.
If the former is still in the process of making this team his own, Samson fandom had never been bigger, especially after the Player of the tournament show in the T20 World Cup. Cut to Monday, when they opened the batting together for the first time in yellow against Rajasthan Royals, Guwahati was buzzing.
At least it did for 12 balls before the Royals pacers decided to spoil the Super Kings party. Quite literally. First, it was Nandre Burger cleaning Samson with a full delivery that moved away and uprooted the off-stump. Six balls later, Jofra Archer joined the party as he breached Gaikwad's defences. CSK were 19/2 with two of their biggest batters back in the pavilion.
And unfortunately for Chennai, that was just the beginning. Burger bounced out Ayush Mhatre for a first ball duck while Sandeep Sharma deceived Matthew Short. Ravindra Jadeja — traded for Samson by CSK after 13 years — delivered the decisive blow. In a span of six deliveries, he trapped the dangerous Sarfaraz Khan and the explosive Shivam Dube. Chennai, by now, had already lost the contest, slumping to 57/6 in eight overs.
This was not how the five-time champions had expected to kickstart their season. Coming into the tournament, they had made drastic changes to the way they operate. Their trusted template was left at the door as they embraced a newer style at the auction. CSK had invested heavily on uncapped explosive Indian talent after being caught short last year. This line-up, without MS Dhoni who has been ruled out for the first two weeks with calf strain, is the beginning of a new chapter where one of the biggest franchises in the league take their first step into the future.
However, in their first outing, Chennai found themselves in hot water.
On a pitch with pace and bounce, their batting line-up — built with expectations of posting big totals on flat pitches — was taken by surprise and failed to adapt in time. And it showed as Burger, Archer, Sandeep and Brijesh Sharma, who is yet to play for any senior state team, ran through the yellow line-up without breaking sweat. If not for Jamie Overton's rescue act — the English all-rounder scored 43 off 36 balls and added 33 runs for the tenth wicket with Anshul Kamboj — Chennai would have struggled to cross the three-figure mark.
By then, however, the contest was long gone. And it was visible as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi once again showed the world that he is here to stay. The teen star racked up a 15-ball half-century, setting up the chase (17-ball 52) for RR. The rest was just a formality as Rajasthan overpowered Super Kings and bagged two points with ease.
Chennai, meanwhile, would believe that this is an aberration and not a beginning of what could be another long season. There were glimpses of positives to take whilst Sarfaraz was batting and they will only hope that Dewald Brevis, who missed the match because of side strain, comes back into the mix by the time they take the field against Punjab Kings in their home turf later this week.
And come Friday, Super Kings will once again hope that they get a surface that suits their line-up and their two biggest stars — Samson and Gaikwad — rise to the occasion.
Brief scores: CSK 127 all out in 19.4 ovs (Overton 43; Archer 2/19, Burger 2/27, Jadeja 2/18) lost to RR 128/2 in 12.1 ovs (Sooryavanshi 52, Jaiswal 38 n.o).
