The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 saw the Chennai Super Kings suffer their fifth defeat. The 49th game of the competition took place on Wednesday, May 1, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium between the Punjab Kings and the team that lost.
Chennai Super Kings amassed 162 runs in the first innings but were unable to hold on as Punjab Kings prevailed by a seven-wicket margin. CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad spoke up following the match to discuss the team’s defeat to the Punjab Kings.
The 27-year-old blamed Dew primarily for the team’s defeat to the Punjab Kings. The five-time champions, in his opinion, were 50–60 runs short, and he even attributed the poor total that CSK scored in the opening inning to the pitch.
Also read: IPL 2024 Qualification Scenarios: In the event that Chennai Super Kings lose to PBKS in Match 49, how can they still make it to the playoffs?
We were batting first, and the pitch wasn’t very fantastic, so I would estimate that we were 50–60 runs short. At the post-match award ceremony, Gaikwad remarked, “It got better, dew, plus the Impact Player [rule] didn’t help] as well.”
Given the circumstances, we didn’t expect to win by such a large margin, he continued. “We were even surprised by our recent victory of 60 runs [78 over Sunrisers Hyderabad at Chepauk].”
It’s an actual issue. Ruturaj Gaikwad
It was a really unfortunate day for the Chennai Super Kings, whose resources were already severely limited due to the absence of Matheesha Pathirana (niggle) and Tushar Deshpande (illness). In addition, Deepak Chahar hurt himself during the game’s first over.
Due to injuries, Ruturaj Gaikwad was left without strike bowlers, which gave Punjab’s hitters the upper hand. Chennai utilised Sameer Rizvi as the impact player.
“That’s a serious issue; there are times when you really want to take a wicket, but all of a sudden there are just two bowlers left in the game who can do it. Moreover, with the dew, our spinners are essentially out of the running. It was undoubtedly a difficult day, but things like this sometimes happen, and there are still four games remaining. Gaikwad expressed his sincere hope that things will improve.