IPL 2023: Why Chennai Super Kings lost against Punjab Kings at home? Reasons Decoded

It has come as a surprise to many as the Super Kings succumbed at their fortress for the second time this season. It was a decent performance from the home side, but there were silly mistakes along the way which has tormented them all season.

MS Dhoni would not be too happy with the result, and if we dissect the points which took the game away from them, we can find two reasons-

A sloth batting by Ruturaj Gaikwad

It was tortoise pace from Ruturaj Gaikwad when the other batters were going at the speed of a Cheetah. Devon Conway played a blinder for CSK, but his opening partner Ruturaj Gaikwad took his time to build his innings.

Ruturaj scored 37 runs but ate up 31 balls to score that many runs. When the innings strike rate was around 167, the CSK opener batted at around 119. This denied CSK from scoring an extra 10 to 15 runs, which in turn proved pivotal for them.

Even at the death, Ravindra Jadeja scored just 12 runs off 10 balls, without even finding the fence once. It also played a big part in them not going beyond the 200-run mark. The CSK all-rounder struggled big time and could only score in singles in the final overs of their inning.

MS Dhoni also had the same notion in the post-match presentation.

“We need to be prepared as to what is to be done. The last few overs in our batting, we could have scored 10-15 more,” Dhoni said. Although he emphasized solely on the death batting, but Gaikwad’s slow inning also inflicted damage.

A poor outing for the CSK Pacers

CSK have been helped by their pacers so far this season. Young Tushar Deshpande has picked up 17 wickets, while Akash Singh also has 5 wickets to his name. Matheesha Pathirana, their Sri Lankan sensation also has been a big performer for them.

But on Sunday, the CSK pacers were taken to the cleaners. Deshpande picked up 3 wickets, but conceded 49 runs in his four overs. Similarly, Akash Singh concede 35 runs off his three, and Pathirana conceded 32 runs off his four overs.

Although the figures are not the worst in the world, it was enough to get PBKS over the line. Dhoni was bemused with the bowlers as they were unable to protect the shorter side of the boundary.

2 Overs 41 Runs – Changed the Match

PBKS needed 82 runs off the last six overs. But half of those runs were scored in the next two overs – which changed the complexion of the game.

Tushar Deshpande bowled the 15th over and conceded 24 runs. Liam Livingstone put him to the sword and hit him for 3 sixes and a four. And then in the 16th over, Ravindra Jadeja came and was bashed for 17 runs.

These two overs kind of turned the momentum in favour of Punjab, and Chennai couldn’t regain back control despite a valiant last over by Matheesha Pathirana.