Opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway shared a scintillating century stand to power Chennai Super Kings to 217 for seven in an IPL match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) here on Monday. At the time of going to press, LSG were 73 without loss after five overs. Kyle Mayers and skipper KL Rahul were batting on 48 and 18 respectively.

MSD on song again

While the highly-rated Gaikwad hit a classy half-century to lead CSK’s charge, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni smacked a 89-metre six and another to send the adoring Chepauk crowd into a frenzy. A delirious crowd had their glimpse of ‘Thala’, Dhoni as he carted two big sixes before being dismissed, going for a third off Mark Wood’s bowling for 12 off three balls. After the initial blitz by Gaikwad (57 off 37 balls; 3 fours, 4 sixes) and Conway (47 off 29 balls; 5 fours, 2 sixes), there were valuable contributions from Shivam Dube (27 off 16 balls; 1 four, 3 sixes) and Moeen Ali (19).