Chennai, Apr 23: A remarkable unbeaten hundred by captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shivam Dube’s ruthless fifty formed the pillars of Chennai Super Kings’ competitive 210 for four against Lucknow Super Giants here on Tuesday.
Gaikwad (108, 60b, 12x4, 3x6) and Dube (66, 27b, 3x4, 7x6) added 104 runs for an entertaining fourth-wicket stand that gave steam to Super Kings innings after a rather subdued Power Play (49/2) and the middle passage.
The CSK should primarily thank Gaikwad, who played an innings which was a connoisseur’s delight, for that total after the early departure of Ajinkya Rahane, who was caught superbly by stumper KL Rahul off Matt Henry.
The batting in this iteration of the IPL has been all about scorching the ball far and wide but Gaikwad took a classic route, timing the ball through the gaps for fours.
In fact, his first fifty contained no fours but still he managed to maintain a strike-rate of above 180 during that phase.
The fifty, the right-hander’s 17th in the IPL, came off just 28 balls. The most spectacular shot that Gaikwad played on the night was a slice-cut off pacer Mohsin Khan that beat the point fielder for a boundary.
However, his focus was also on constructing useful alliances with his teammates as 45 runs were made with Daryl Mitchell, who replaced an out of touch Rachin Ravindra, and 52 were made alongside Ravindra Jadeja (17).
However, both Mitchell (11), who was dropped on four, and Jadeja would rue missing out on a chance to chip in with a far bigger knock.
While Gaikwad was the main contributor in those partnerships, the pressure was slightly lifted off Gaikwad’s shoulders once Dube arrived at the crease.
The left-hander played some powerful hits around the field and, not so surprisingly, fetched CSK’s first six of the innings in the 13th over off pacer Marcus Stoinis.
Gaikwad soon slammed the first six of his innings in the 45th ball he faced –pulling Stoinis’ half-tracker over mid-wicket.
However, Dube seamlessly slipped into his six-hitting avatar and pacer Yash Thakur bore the brunt as the left-hander smashed him for three successive sixes.
Gaikwad, who reached 99 with a six off Thakur over extra cover, reached his second IPL hundred with a four in the next ball off the same bowler as he made 16 runs in the 18th over.
Gaikwad and Dube brought up 100 of their partnership in just 46 balls.
Dube hammered Mohsin for a four and six off successive balls to reach his fifty in 22 balls as CSK plundered 71 runs off the last five overs.
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Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.