WATCH: Persistent Faf du Plessis convinces Ruturaj to take review, saves him from making a duck

Faf du Plessis has had a terrific outing in the IPL, not just with his batting, but also with his decision-making. During Chennai Super Kings’ penultimate group stage game against Delhi Capitals, the South African opener saved Ruturaj Gaikwad from getting dismissed for a duck with some quick thinking. Ruturaj Gaikwad would’ve walked back without troubling the scorers.

Ruturaj Gaikwad was on strike right after Nortje bowled it wide down the leg and Pant couldn’t prevent it from reaching the boundary. Gaikwad faced a brilliant in-swinger from the big South African, who tried to play around the ball and missed it totally. He was hit on his pads and he was adjudged LBW by Anil Choudhary. It looked pretty close to being out in real-time, and Ruturaj perhaps was convinced he was out.

However, Faf du Plessis felt otherwise and requested Ruturaj to go up. With the hard new ball and a bowler like Nortje who moves the ball so well, there was a remote possibility for the ball to be moving down the leg.

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That is exactly what happened after Ruturaj went upstairs, and it saved him from getting out. Although both Faf and Ruturaj did not get as many runs on board as they would’ve liked, this moment of brilliance from the Proteas cricketer was a touch of genius.

Faf du Plessis does what Jason Roy didn’t the other night

Just the other day, on the same ground, Sunrisers Hyderabad batted first against Kolkata Knight Riders and Tim Southee had Wriddhiman Saha dismissed LBW. Although it looked plumb in replays, ball-tracking suggested it missed the top of the stumps by a couple of inches. Roy did not suggest Saha to take a chance against the bounce of the hard new ball, and Sunrisers paid a price for it.

Faf du Plessis took that chance on the ball to move away just about enough, to save his young partner, and was spot on with his hypothesis.