Follow UsRuturaj Gaikwad put the blame on fielding as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) lost their first game of the 2025 season after winning against Mumbai in their first game.
CSK dropped three catches while fielding in the first innings of the game, allowing good spin batters like Rajat Patidar to get in and maximise their impact. Patidar was dropped multiple times by CSK, and his 51 off 32 deliveries proved to be match-winning.
“I still feel 170 was a par score on this wicket. It wasn't that easy to bat. Bad fielding cost us,” Gaikwad said in the post-match presentation. He also mentioned that the wicket got sticky in the second innings, and batting wasn’t straightforward for the Chennai batters.
“When you're chasing 170, you have a little more time, but when you're chasing 20 runs extra, you have to bat differently in the powerplay, and it didn't happen today. It got a little slower and a little sticky. The new ball was sticking a bit. Don't know how it happened. Rahul [Tripathi] backed his shot; I backed mine as well; sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But as I said, when you have a par score in mind and you are chasing 20 extra, you always want to stay ahead. So that was just the thinking.
“But at the end we didn't lose by a big margin, it was just 50 runs. It's definitely a different scenario when you have three world-class spinners in the team. You want new batters to face them. It didn't happen this time; we dropped catches, and boundaries kept coming, and they kept going, and the momentum didn't stop till the last over.”
CSK’s next game is in Guwahati against Rajasthan Royals, and Gaikwad hoped his side's fielding efforts could improve.
“There's a long flight to Guwahati but we just have to turn up mentally and see the areas we can improve. I feel the fielding has to improve a lot and we have to come back stronger in the fielding department,” the CSK skipper said.