Injuries made the difference: Gaikwad on CSK's elimination

Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Chennai Super Kings by 27 runs on Saturday night (May 18) to secure a playoff qualification in a match to remember. RCB, tasked to win by at least 18 runs, scored 218/5 batting first. 

In the run chase, CSK lost their skipper, Ruturaj Gaikwad, on the first ball. From then on, CSK were always chasing 201, the number of runs required to qualify, but fell 10 runs short, finishing at 191/7. 

Ruturaj Gaikwad, the CSK skipper, assessed that the target wasn’t an issue for the team, given the pitch's good condition. 

"It was a good wicket. For spinners, it was turning and gripping a little bit. Pretty happy with what the target was,” he said after the defeat. 

The defeat slipped CSK to the fifth spot on the points table to finish their league stage, going below RCB on the net run rate difference (+0.459 for RCB as compared to CSK’s +0.392). "To sum up the season, pretty happy with seven games out of 14,” said Gaikwad. 

Chennai had an uncharacteristic up-and-down season. On 12 occasions when they qualified before, they mostly dominated the league stage. Since 2018, especially, they have ruled the league stage when qualified and have fallen flat on the other two occasions (2020 and 2022) when they haven’t. This was a unique season in which CSK moved up and down in the middle muddle of the points table. 

Gaikwad attributed it to the challenges the side faced throughout the tournament, specifically player unavailabilities. 

“Injuries, not having Conway as well - made a lot of difference,” he spoke. 

“Challenges right from the first game. Pathirana got injured, we missed Fizz [Mustafizur Rahma] as well. When you have injuries, it is difficult to balance the squad.” Gaikwad explained. 

The match swung like a pendulum. CSK threatened to come back in the match many times but RCB kept chipping away. In the final over, CSK needed 17 runs to qualify with MS Dhoni hitting the first ball for a 110-metre long six. 

That was Chennai’s best chance but Dhoni was out next ball, toe-ending a slower ball from Yash Dayal to the deep square leg fielder. The last four balls brought only one run as CSK faced their third elimination before the playoffs in the last seven years. 

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