“They bowled well in the back end: CSK Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad

Following his side’s 6-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad showered praise on their opponents and said that they bowled well in the back end.

SRH has climbed to the fifth spot with two wins and two losses in four games, giving them four points. With the same win-loss ratio, CSK is at the third spot with four points due to a better run rate.
While speaking at the post-match presentation, Gaikwad claimed that the pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium was slow since it was a black soil pitch.

He further said that the team conceded too many runs during the batting powerplay and added that there was dew at the end of the game.

“I think to be honest, it was a slow pitch, They bowled well in the back end, kept the game in control and didn’t allow us to capitalize. I thought we did well in the beginning (of the match), but they came back well later. It was a black soil pitch, so we expected the pitch to be slower, but it became slower and slower, and they used the boundary size well. We conceded too many in the batting PP, one dropped catch and one expensive over. Still, to take them to the 19th over was a great effort. I thought anything around 170-175 would’ve been a good total for us. There was a bit of dew towards the end, but Moeen got the ball to spin even in the 15th-16th over. So I don’t think the pitch changed a lot during the course of the game,” Gaikwad said.

Summarizing the match, SRH won the toss and opted to bowl first. Rachin Ravindra (12) and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (26 in 21 balls, with three fours and a six) got out early, reducing CSK to 54/2 in 7.1 overs.

Then knocks from Shivam Dube (45 in 24 balls, with two fours and four boundaries), Ravindra Jadeja (31 in 23 balls, with fours boundaries) and Ajinkya Rahane (35 in 30 balls, with two fours and six) took CSK to 165/5 in their 20 overs.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/28), T Natarajan (1/39), skipper Cummins (1/29) and Jaydev Unadkat (1/29) were among the wickets for SRH.

In the run-chase, Travis Head (31 in 24 balls, with three fours and a six) and Abhishek Sharma (37 in 12 balls, with three fours and four sixes) started off really well, taking SRH to 106 in 9.4 overs. Aiden Markram scored a brilliant half-century (50 in 36 balls, with four boundaries and a six). Heinrich Klaasen (10*) and Nitish Reddy (11*) took SRH to a six-wicket win.

Moeen Ali (2/23) was the pick of the bowlers for CSK. Deepak Chahar and Maheesh Theekshana got a wicket too.

Abhishek’s explosive knock earned him the ‘Player of the Match’ award.