The match began five minutes late after a dog invasion but Gaikwad (57) and Conway (47) soon turned the spotlight to cricket with their blazing stand of 110 in Chennai.
Four-time winners Chennai, led by MS Dhoni, reached 217-7, a total their bowlers defended by restricting Lucknow to 205-7 and register their first win of this season.
England’ Moeen Ali took four key wickets and was ably supported by fellow spinner Mitchell Santner, who returned impressive figures of 1-21.
But Gaikwad set up victory as he smashed his way to his second successive half-century this season to entertain a raucous home crowd, which witnessed its team in action live after a long break due to Covid.
The 16th edition of the money-spinning T20 tournament has returned to its home-and-away format after a few years of pandemic forced closed-door and limited-venue seasons.
Gaikwad tore into the Lucknow attack with a string of sixes including one off England’s Mark Wood after the-left handed Conway hit the express bowler for three boundaries in that over.
Lucknow hit back to remove the openers after leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi sent back Gaikwad and Wood had his revenge on Conway with Krunal Pandya taking a stunning low and diving catch in the deep.
Lucknow kept chipping away with wickets including Ben Stokes out for eight before Ambati Rayudu, who hit an unbeaten 27, took the total past 200. Dhoni hit two straight sixes off Wood in the final over to go past 5000 IPL runs before he departed.
In reply, Kyle Mayers smashed 53 off 22 balls to start the chase strongly but Lucknow soon lost their way to Moeen’s off-spin. Moeen got Mayers, skipper KL Rahul (20) and Marcus Stoinis (21) to dent the chase and despite Nicholas Pooran’s quickfire 32 Lucknow could not recover.
BRIEF SCORES
Chennai Super Kings 217 for 7 (Gaikwad 57, Conway 47, Bishnoi 3-28, Wood 3-49) beat Lucknow Super Giants 205 for 7 (Mayers 53, Pooran 32, Moeen 4-26) by 12 runs.
Buttler gets selective about favourite scoop shot
Jos Buttler says he has not fallen out of love with his trademark scoop shot and is merely being a little more choosy about when he plays it after the opener helped Rajasthan Royals to a winning start in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday.Rajasthan’s top three batters smashed fifties to power the 2008 champions to a commanding 203-5 against hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad, who managed 131-8 in reply.
England white-ball captain Buttler blasted a 22-ball 54 and raised 85 runs with fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (54) before Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson (55) joined the party.
Buttler’s knock, which earned him the Player of the Match award, included three sixes but his high-risk, high-reward scoop shot was conspicuous by its absence.
“It’s always my favourite shot. I’ll try and play it as much as I can,” the 32-year-old told team mate Yuzvendra Chahal in a post-match video after their 72-run victory.
Rajasthan take on Punjab Kings in Guwahati tomorrow.