It wasn’t the best of starts to IPL 2020 for Shikhar Dhawan who seemed very scratchy with the bat for Delhi Capitals, batting as an opener alongside Prithvi Shaw. He had only 127 runs in his first 6 games including a duck in the opening game and just 5 in his sixth game of the season. However, as we reached the mid-season stage, he was all set to turn around his campaign, and he did so in style.
His 7th game of the season saw him hitting 69* against Mumbai Indians and that was some much-needed time at the crease for Dhawan, which he followed up with another fifty, scoring 57 in his 8th game of IPL 2020, against Rajasthan Royals. Just as we all thought that the southpaw was in good touch, he decided to take it to another level in Match 34, against Chennai Super Kings on 17 Oct 2020 in Sharjah.
Prior to this night in Sharjah, Dhawan had a few unbeaten nineties in his IPL career, including a best of 97* in IPL 2019 but on this night, he took advantage of a flat Sharjah track and a mediocre CSK bowling attack to bring up his maiden century in the Indian Premier League, being a part of the tournament since the inaugural season in 2008.
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After winning the toss and batting first in the second game of that day’s double header, Chennai managed to put up 179/4 with Faf du Plessis top scoring with 58, and contributions from Ambati Rayudu (45*) and Ravindra Jadeja (33*). Anrich Nortje was expensive but he was the pick of the bowlers from Delhi that night, ending with 2/44 and then it was the chance for the Delhi batsmen to go out and get them over the line.
However, it was a poor start for Delhi as they lost Prithvi Shaw off the second ball and then lost Ajinkya Rahane within the powerplay itself, struggling at 26/2 before Dhawan partnered with his captain Shreyas Iyer for a decent partnership. Iyer was dismissed for 23 but Dhawan continued his run scoring as he put up another small partnership with Aussie all-rounder Marcus Stoinis. However, the required run rate was getting steeper by the over.
The last ball of the 19th over saw Dhawan taking a single to bring up his maiden IPL century off 57 balls but as the dugout applauded him, he didn’t celebrate knowing they needed 17 runs off the final over. His work for the night concluded as he took a single off the first all of the 20th over, scoring 101(58)* as his partner Axar Patel decided to take over the reins, smashing 6, 6, 2, 6 to win the game with a ball to spare!
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One may say it was a tactical error from CSK as they let Jadeja bowl the final over against two left handers. However, they weren’t left with too many options since Dwayne Bravo hurt his hamstring and left the field. While Axar was the man of the moment, Dhawan was the Man of the Match as he put in his first entry into the list of all-time IPL centuries, also making it the third of the season after KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal.
“It is very special. Been playing for 13 years, and this is the first. So really happy”, he said while collecting the Man of the Match award. He hit 14 boundaries and a six that night before going on to score another century in the next game, making history as he became the first batsman in 13 years of the IPL to score consecutive centuries! For more cricketing updates, make sure you stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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