Kane Williamson has suffered what looked like a worrying knee injury in the curtain-raiser to the Indian Premier League season, marring the Gujarat Titans' comfortable opening-day victory over the Chennai Super Kings.
The New Zealand Test great, making his debut for the reigning IPL champions on Friday, had to be carried off the field in Ahmedabad after his right knee gave way beneath him when he landed heavily while trying to save a six in spectacular fashion.
Fielding on the deep-square leg boundary, Williamson leapt up to stop another big shot from Chennai's Ruturaj Gaikwad during his match-winning innings of 92 off 50 balls.
The 32-year-old managed to save a couple of runs but the cost was immediately evident as he clutched his knee while in obvious pain on the ground.
After being held up by two colleagues, who helped him back to the dressing room, he played no further part in the match, with the Titans having to bring on a substitute Sai Sudharsan under the new Impact Player rule.
It wasn't immediately clear how bad the injury was but it did not look good for Williamson, who had only recently got back to full fitness from a nagging elbow injury which has caused him problems for two years.
His recent form in the Test arena, with two centuries and a double hundred, had suggested he was getting back to his very best after a miserable IPL campaign in 2022.
Gujarat, though, didn't need him nor their lone Australian Matthew Wade, who couldn't even find a place among the substitutes, as they chased down Chennai's 7-178 to win by five wickets in front of a vast crowd at the world's biggest cricket arena, the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Not for the first time, Rashid Khan proved the player of the match, thanks to his superb 2-26 with the ball, getting rid of both English stars Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes, and then his coolness with the bat to see the Titans across the line.
Rashid's six and four in successive balls in the penultimate over turned what could have been a nervy final six balls into a relatively straightforward job, as sixth-wicket partner Rahul Tewatia hit another six and four off the first two deliveries to knock off the eight needed.
