Ruturaj Gaikwad Identifies Areas CSK Needs to Improve Following Third IPL 2024 Defeat

The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) defeated the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium by an eight-wicket margin.

Ruturaj Gaikwad expressed disappointment after CSK’s third defeat in their previous four road games. He thought his hitters could have produced a few more runs and exerted a little more effort.

“Considering the circumstances, we performed well with the bat and couldn’t have hoped for more. after the powerplay, we were unable to build on our early lead and were often losing wickets, Ruturaj Gaikwad said after the match’s post-mortem.

Rachin Ravindra delivered CSK an early punch as they were chosen to bat first. Then Yash Thakur sent the skipper back. Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane made sure that there were no more losses by batting at a reasonable tempo. Neither Shivam Dube nor the Impact Sub, Sameer Rizvi, made much of an impression; Rahane died attempting to escape.

On a challenging surface that was on the slower side, Jadeja kept the innings together despite wickets falling all around him and scored his maiden fifty of the year. Before hitting three straight sixes off Ravi Bishnoi to give the CSK innings a boost, Moeen Ali took his time. Following Moeen’s exit, MS Dhoni teed off to provide the winning blow for his team.

“I think we were down by ten to fifteen runs. It’s a little challenging with that number since you need an additional 10–20 runs for the impact sub-rule. Pitches like this appear slow at first, but they pick up speed when the dew sets in. A score of 190 would have been appropriate. Gaikwad continued.

Considering MS Dhoni’s late flourish, CSK seemed to be in the lead but were unable to convert it into a bowling attack. They had to fight for wickets in the middle overs after a powerplay that produced no wickets, while KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock, the openers for LSG, scored elegant fifties.

We would desire to do better at getting wickets during the powerplay. That will make the opposition more vulnerable. We must put effort into it, Gaikwad said.

After that, Chennai will return home to play three back-to-back games, the first of which will be against Lucknow, with Ruturaj Gaikwad looking to get revenge for the loss.

“Good to play them (at Chepauk, the next game) again.” Now that we have three home games, we will do our homework well,” he said.