Ahmedabad, May 22: The IPL 2026 season concluded for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) with a significant defeat. In the 66th match of the tournament held on Thursday, CSK faced a loss by 89 runs against the Gujarat Titans (GT). Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad acknowledged that GT outperformed CSK in all three aspects of the game.
While chasing a target of 230 runs at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, CSK was bowled out for just 140 runs. After the match, Ruturaj stated, “Yes, we aimed to chase the total as quickly as possible. Clearly, chasing 230 runs in 20 overs against GT’s bowling attack is not easy. GT performed exceptionally well and deserves credit. They defeated us in all three departments of the game.”
Ruturaj admitted that there were mistakes in their bowling, which cost the team dearly. He remarked, “They got off to a good start. We made some errors in our bowling. We did not perform well during the powerplay, especially against those two (Gill and Sudharsan). Once their openers settle in, it becomes quite challenging to stop them. There were phases where we could have restricted them to 200 runs, but we failed to do so.”
Reflecting on CSK’s season, the captain noted, “The season started off tough, especially with a hat-trick of losses. After we gained momentum, we found the right players in the right positions and the right combination, everything started to click. However, we faced injuries to key players, particularly all-rounders Jamie Overton and Ramakrishna Ghosh, which made our playing XI a bit unstable. In the last three matches, we either had one batsman short or a bowler missing.”
Ruturaj further added, “Many do not believe that we are a young team; we are going through a phase of change, and we lack experienced players for tough matches. Our team has 8 to 10 players who have played less than 20 matches. This year provided a learning opportunity for all of them. We realized what we need to work on. Despite this, we managed to secure six remarkable victories. I am proud of my team.”
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