'Great Effort to Take Them to the 19th Over,' Says CSK Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad After Defeat Against SRH

Sunrisers Hyderabad posted their second win of the ongoing IPL season with a 6-wicket victory over defending champions Chennai Super Kings on Friday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

SRH restricted CSK to 165/5 in 20 overs before the hosts managed to chase down the target with 11 deliveries and six wickets in hand.

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CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad shed light on the nature of the pitch and praised the opposition for limiting the flow of runs in the second part of the first innings.

“I think, to be honest, it was a slow pitch. 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,” Gaikwad said.

“They bowled well in the back end, kept the game in control and didn’t allow us to capitalize,” he added.

“I thought we did well at the beginning of the game, but they came back well later,” Gaikwad said.

SRH got their chase off to a brisk start as Abhishek Sharam smashed the CSK bowlers all over the park en route to his 37 in 12 deliveries. He was ably supported by Travis Head, who was dropped in the second ball of the chase at slips and went on to add 31 runs.

However, despite the early onslaught, CSK managed to take the game deep before SRH picked up the win.

“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,” Gaikwad expressed.

Gaikwad opined that the pitch did not alter too much during the course of the game as evidenced from Moeen Ali’s spell, in which he claimed the wickets of two SRH batters.

“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 concluded.

CSK will host Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Monday, while SRH travel to Mullanpur to face off against the Punjba Kings on Tuesday.