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Speaking at the post-match presentation, Gaikwad highlighted the challenges posed by the pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, describing it as slow, particularly due to its black soil composition.Despite starting well, Gaikwad noted SRH’s ability to curtail CSK’s momentum and prevent them from capitalizing on their early advantage.
“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,” Gaikwad said.
Acknowledging the impact of the batting powerplay, Gaikwad admitted that CSK conceded too many runs during that phase, further compounded by a dropped catch and an expensive over. However, he praised his team’s effort in pushing the match to the 19th over, despite the formidable challenge posed by SRH.
“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,” Gaikwad added.
In the match, CSK posted a total of 165/5 in their 20 overs, propelled by contributions from Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ajinkya Rahane. However, SRH chased down the target convincingly, with Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, and Aiden Markram leading the charge.
With this victory, SRH climbed to the fifth spot in the IPL 2024 standings, while CSK occupied the third spot with an identical win-loss ratio but a better run rate.
(With inputs from ANI)
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