Chennai Super Kings, captained by Rituraj Gaikwad, lost their fourth consecutive match on Tuesday, Punjab Kings defeated CSK by 18 runs. Punjab Kings batted first and scored 219 runs, the team had lost 5 wickets for 83 runs but opener Priyansh Arya played an explosive century to take the team’s score to such a high score. MS Dhoni came at number 5, he was dismissed after scoring 17 runs in 12 balls. Earlier, Shivam Dubey (42), Devon Conway (69) also played good innings, but the team remained 19 runs short of the target. Captain Rituraj Gaikwad said on the dropped catches during the match, “In the last four games, this is the only difference. It has been very important. Every time we drop a catch, the same batsman adds 20-25-30 runs extra. If you leave the RCB game, the last three chases, it was a matter of one or two or maybe three hits. Sometimes you have to appreciate the way Priyansh played. He took advantage of his chances. It was high-risk batting and it worked out really well for him. Even though we were taking wickets, he kept the momentum going. 10-15 (we could have given less runs), if we had done well, and at the end of the day, it is also because of dropped catches.”
Working on fielding, but not getting results
Rituraj Gaikwad further said, “Today was a great performance from the batting point of view. That’s what we wanted. Our best batsmen, who can play the pace very well, played down the order and had a great powerplay. It was a better, better performance and there were many positives. I want to take some positives from this, and we were two or three hits away (from winning). He (Conway) is adept at catching the ball on time, which is very useful in the top order. When you have Jaddu, who is especially known for that finishing role, you expect him to. When you know the batsman is struggling. He (Conway) was still playing with good timing. We waited till (he started struggling). Told the players that we have to enjoy fielding. If you are nervous, you will drop some catches. If you want to be a great fielder, then saving the first catch, the first boundary, all “It helps us. Batting and bowling, you can have a bad day, but in fielding, it’s something we are trying to work on, but it’s not happening right now.”
After this match, Chennai Super Kings is at number 9 in the points table. They have lost 4 out of 5 matches, their net run rate is very poor (-0.889).
