IPL 2023 CSK vs LSG: Chennai Super Kings post their 3rd highest powerplay score; Ruturaj-Conway demolish LSG

Chennai Super Kings are making their return to their den i.e. MA Chidambaram Stadium after a gap of four years as they take on Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2023 match on Monday (April 3).

Their opening duo of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway gave their team a brisk start in the highly-anticipated contest of the sixteenth edition of the IPL. Opening the innings for CSK in their ninth match together, Gaikwad and Conway posted 79 runs inside six overs and brought the Yellow Army's third-highest powerplay score of all time.

Chennai Super Kings Highest Powerplay Scores in IPL

Gaikwad and Conway - the right-hand-and-left-hand batting combination - did wonders for the Super Kings in front of a good bowling attack of Lucknow Super Giants. Both the top-order batters, however, were unfazed by the bowler at the opposite end and kept punishing them.

Gaikwad - who smashed a brilliant 92 in the first match of the season against Gujarat Titans - took some time to set his eyes. Once set, the talented right-handed batter from Maharashtra took on the offensive when he dispatched spinner Krishnappa Gowtham - a former CSK teammate - for three sixes in his first over.

The right-handed batter amassed 20 runs from that over and gave his team the required momentum. The next over was bowled by England pacer Mark Wood and it was the turn of New Zealand batter, Conway, to go ballistic before Gaikwad finished it with a maximum.

As 19 runs came from the sixth over bowled by Wood - who grabbed a five-for in the previous game for LSG - was taken to the cleaners as CSK reached 79/0. It was also the highest powerplay total at the Chepauk - which is conventionally a low-scoring ground.

CSK Highest Powerplay Scores In IPL

100/2 vs Kings XI Punjab (now PBKS), Mumbai in 2014

90/0 vs Mumbai Indians, Mumbai in 2015

79/0 vs Lucknow Super Giants, Chennai today (2023)

75/1 vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai in 2018

Most century partnerships by a CSK opening pair in IPL

3* - Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway

2 - Murali Vijay and Michael Hussey

2 - Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith

2 - Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson

2 - Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway thus surpassed the previous record held by CSK greats like Murali Vijay, Michael Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Smith int terms of century partnerships. They now have three century-plus stands together.