Dubai: Chennai Super Kings opener Ruturaj Gaikwad on Friday became the youngest player to win orange cap in the history of the IPL tournament.
Gaikwad, at 24 years and 257 days, achieved this feat during the ongoing IPL 2021 final against Kolkata Knight Riders here as he finished this season as the highest run-scorer of the tournament, amassing 635 runs in 16 games at an average of 45.35.
Before Gaikwad, Shaun Marsh at 24 years and 297 days had this special honor in his name during the inaugural IPL season in 2008 where he played for Punjab Kings and scored 616 runs.
CSK's Faf du Plessis (633), Punjab Kings' captain KL Rahul (626), Delhi Capitals' Shikhar Dhawan (587) and Royal Challengers Bangalore's Glenn Maxwell (513) round up the list of top five run scorers of the season.
Earlier in the game, Faf du Plessis brought his A-game to play a knock of 86 runs and help Chennai Super Kings CSK post a total of 192/3 against KKR
Sent into bat, CSK got off to a steady start as openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis put on 50 runs inside the first six overs. During this course, Gaikwad went on to leapfrog KL Rahul to become the leading run-scorer in this year's IPL. The much-needed breakthrough to KKR was provided by Sunil Narine as he dismissed Gaikwad (32) in the 9th over, ending the 61-run opening stand.
Faf du Plessis continued on his merry way and he completed his half-century in the 11th over of the innings with CSK nicely poised at 97/1. Robin Uthappa scored 31 off 15 balls and he proved a perfect foil to Faf and the duo put on 63 runs for the second wicket. However, Narine once again got among the action as he dismissed Uthappa in the 14th over, reducing CSK to 124/2.
Moeen Ali next came out to bat and he also played the very same way and KKR bowlers were left searching for answers. In the final three overs, CSK managed to add 39 more runs, taking the score past the 190-run mark. For Dhoni's side, Moeen remained unbeaten 37.
Brief Scores: CSK 192/3 (Faf du Plessis 86, Moeen Ali 37*; Sunil Narine 2-26) vs KKR.
With ANI Inputs
