We were 50-60 runs short on the night: Ruturaj Gaikwad

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, on the back of his side’s defeat against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on May 1 (Wednesday), gave a brutal assessment of the Super Kings’ batting performance, saying that the team were at least 50-60 runs short of a winning total.

Asked to bat first, CSK’s innings never got going. Skipper Gaikwad dazzled again with a 62, but the right-hander got no support from the other end, meaning the hosts crawled their way to a modest 162.

In response, Punjab got to the target in just 17.5 overs, barely breaking a sweat. 

“We were probably 50-60 runs short, the pitch wasn't great when we batted, it got better later on. With the impact rule as well, we were well short,” Gaikwad said at the post match presentation.

Gaikwad has been superb with the bat all season, but what’s partly handicapped CSK is their skipper losing a whopping 9/10 tosses. On the night, CSK lost the toss again, meaning it was Punjab who got to use the dewy conditions in the second innings. They made the fullest use of it, taking advantage of the CSK bowlers’ misery.

“I’ve been winning tosses in practice a lot, but not during the actual game,” Gaikwad quipped. 

“What to do. I am really under pressure at the toss.

“With dew, it’s very difficult to contain the batting team in the second innings.  Even last game, we were quite surprised that we won by a big margin. Dew is something we can't control. We can slightly bat better in the first innings. In the last 2 games, we tried our best to get 200-210. On this pitch, it was tough to get 180.”

Punjab, meanwhile, are on a roll, having killed two giants in a row in Kolkata Knight Riders and now CSK. Their captain Sam Curran asserted that there’s still every chance that PBKS can make it to the playoffs.

“Any team that can get momentum at the back-end is dangerous,” Curran said.

PBKS’ next game is against CSK as well, and they will enter that clash as favorites, having gone W W W W W against the Men in Yellow in their last five H2H clashes. A confident Curran said that his side will certainly fancy their chances against the Super Kings once again, when they meet each other in three days’ time.

“We come against the same opposition so we have one up on them. It is a new game, new conditions but this win will give us a lot of confidence.” Curran said.

The next PBKS vs CSK contest will see the two sides clashing against each other in Dharamshala.

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