Huge setback! CSK veteran injured during KKR clash, confirms Ruturaj Gaikwad

In the 22nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) hosted the Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Monday, April 8.

Chennai Super Kings won the toss and opted to bowl first in the match. They made three massive changes to their playing XI as Deepak Chahar missed out and Mustafizur Rahman, Shardul Thakur, and Sameer Rizvi returned. While KKR decided to field an unchanged team.

CSK were off to a good start in the match as Tushar Deshpande cleaned up Phil Salt on the first delivery. Then, the right-arm quick gave away 19 runs in his second over, and after battling well KKR ended up with 56/1 at the end of the powerplay.

However, CSK bowlers made a sensational comeback in the match and slowed the net run rate of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by picking up wickets at regular intervals. From being at 56/1, the Knight Riders went to 99/5 in 15 overs. With the power-packed batting line-up expectations were about KKR scoring big in the end overs to finish their innings on high.

Unfortunately for KKR, that didn't happen as CSK bowlers were spot-on with their lines and lengths and restricted the opposition to 137/9. The top scorer in the first innings was Shreyas Iyer, who amassed 34 runs, and the top bowler was Ravindra Jadeja who bagged three wickets for 18 runs.

Chasing the target, Rachin Ravindra, who has been going through a lean patch, tried to go berserk from ball one and got out after scoring 15 runs. Then, the hosts took control of the match as skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad joined forces with Daryl Mitchell to stitch together 70 runs to push KKR out of the match.

Mitchell was dismissed for 25 and Shivam Dube departed after playing an entertaining knock of 28 runs. Ruturaj Gaikwad (67) meanwhile, remained unbeaten till the end and along with MS Dhoni (1) guided Chennai Super Kings to a superb 7-wicket win.

With Jinx injured, the onus was on me - Ruturaj Gaikwad on Ajinkya Rahane

At the post-match presentation ceremony, Ruturaj Gaikwad said that finishing off the match with MS Dhoni while hitting his first fifty as captain was quite nostalgic as the same thing happened when he hit his maiden fifty as a CSK player. He explained:

"Bit of nostalgia for me. My first IPL fifty, Mahi bhai was with me to finish the match."

Ruturaj Gaikwad further revealed a piece of sad news for Chennai Super Kings fans, saying that Ajinkya Rahane has suffered an injury, which was the reason behind him not coming to bat at No.3. Ruturaj Gaikwad said:

"With Jinx injured, onus was on me to bat through, didn't want to put the youngsters in a difficult situation. Was a 150-160 wicket."

Ruturaj Gaikwad further lauded Ravindra Jadeja and said that he doesn't need to guide his players a lot as all of them are quite experienced. Ruturaj Gaikwad ssid:

"Jaddu always comes in after the power play with momentum in the spin department. With this team, I don't really need to tell things to anyone. Everyone's in a great head space, Mahi bhai and Fleming are still around to take those calls."

Ruturaj Gaikwad signed off by talking about his batting and strike rate in T20s. He said:

"I wouldn't say mine is a slow start, in T20s there are times you nick off one or two balls, sometimes you need a bit of luck to get going, maybe something for experts to talk about, with my strike rate (laughs)."