Chennai Super Kings' opening batter from New Zealand Devon Conway has said that he had the "best seat" as he watched Ruturaj Gaikwad bludgeon the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers to smithereens in their 13-run victory at the MCA stadium here on May 1. Conway was Gaikwad's opening partner in the game and the duo went about dismantling the SRH bowlers as the defending IPL champions notched up a 200-plus total and then restricted the Kane Williamson-led side to 189. While Conway himself contributed an unbeaten 85 off 55 deliveries, the Kiwi batter said he was left amazed with Gaikwad's power-hitting.
Gaikwad got to his 99 off 57 deliveries, his knock embellished with six fours and an equal number of maximums as he shared a record 182-run stand with Conway. "It's a pretty special partnership. The way Ruturaj played was outstanding. I had the best seat at the other end, watching some of the shots that he played tonight," Conway told CSK TV. "In the beginning, I wasn't sort of getting the ball away as much as I would have liked to. I just tried to absorb the pressure as much as possible, especially when Rutu was playing very well. My role was clear that I had to get him on strike as much as possible.
Later on in the innings also I faced thirty odd balls, I was seeing it a lot better.
I started to get it away easily as well. I was able to capitalise towards the end of the innings," added Conway. Conway also praised bowler Mukesh Choudhary, for his four-wicket haul. "I think he would've been dismissed when he dropped that catch, especially (SRH's) Abhishek (Sharma), who was going quite nicely. For him to bounce back from that moment and dismiss Abhishek with the ball and take those wickets in the powerplay and the later part of the innings, was really good for him to bounce back," he added.