"One expensive over..." - Ruturaj Gaikwad attacks Mukesh Choudhary following CSK's loss to SRH

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad opened up about the disappointing loss his team faced against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He said that Travis Head's dropped catch and costly over by Mukesh Choudhary changed the game for them.

Chennai Super Kings faced their second consecutive loss of the IPL 2024 as Sunrisers Hyderabad thumped them by 6 wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side looked completely out of sorts in the game.

They didn't have a great outing with the bat as no batter could register a half-century. Shivam Dube was the top scorer for the team as he scored 45 runs. Ajinkya Rahane made a valuable contribution of 25 runs but couldn't carry on. Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad threw away the start he got as he managed just 26 runs.

Thanks to Ravindra Jadeja, who played a vital knock of 31 runs in the end and powered his team to a total of 165 runs. He didn't get support from the other batters in the end as Chennai Super Kings could manage just 50 runs in the last 7 overs of the innings.

The second innings too didn't go their way as they first dropped catch of Travis Head (31) on 0. And after that, Abhishek Sharma (37) slammed Mukesh Choudhary for 27 runs in an over. The duo set the platform for the team in the chase before Aiden Markram (50) slammed a half-century to take his team close.

Heinrich Klaasen (10*) and Nitish Reddy (14*) close the game perfectly for the team. Sunrisers Hyderabad won the game with 6 wickets in hand and had more than overs remaining. This was their second win of the season.

Ruturaj Gaikwad admitted that CSK couldn't finish the innings on high. He also stated that the slow nature of the pitch didn't allow them to score freely. Speaking to broadcasters after the game, he stated:

"I think to be honest, it was a slow pitch, They bowled well in the back end, kept the game in control and didn't allow us to capitalize. I thought we did well in the beginning (of the match), but they came back well later. 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."

I thought anything around 170-175 would've been a good total for us - Ruturaj Gaikwad

Ruturaj Gaikwad further admitted that Chennai Super Kings gave away too many runs in the power play. He believes that had they scored around 170-175 then they would've had a good chance in the game. Talking about the performance of his team, he stated:

"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. 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."

Chennai Super Kings will be next seen in action when they take on Kolkata Knight on Monday (8th April).