IPL 2024: A sigh of relief with the injuries we had, says Gaikwad after CSK’s 28-run win over PBKS

Dharamsala, May 5 (IANS) With the bowling department hit with injuries, Chennai Super Kings looked thin in resources till Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande and Simarjeet Singh stepped up with crucial spells to give the visitors’ 28-run win over Punjab Kings at the HPCA Stadium on Sunday.

“A sigh of relief with the injuries we had (over the feeling of getting a win). Not even sure about who was going to play on the morning of the match, so really happy with that (the win). After you win the game, everyone says good you lost the toss, but it does matter to me (smiles),” said CSK skipper Gaikwad after the match ended.

Jadeja’s spell of 3-20 in the middle overs turned the game on its head, while Simarjeet and Deshpande returned with figures of 2-16 and 2-35 respectively to derail PBKS’ chase and help CSK defend 167/9.

Mitchell Santner and Shardul Thakur also took a wicket each to ensure CSK jumped to third place in the points table and also snapped their five-match losing streak against PBKS. “I don't know what he (Simarjeet) is doing but in the pre-season, we had, he was bowling at around 150s.”

“We had Deepak, Shardul, Tushar plus Pathirana and Fizz, so he did not get too many changes. Nothing is late, he has a game today. We were thinking of sending an impact batter, but we thought the impact batter would score 10-15 runs but the bowler might get us 2-3 wickets,” added Gaikwad on the move to get Simarjeet as an impact player in Sunday’s game.

Gaikwad admitted CSK could have got more than 167/9 but felt that the second innings made the side’s total look par on a two-paced wicket.

“Everyone believed that the wicket was slow and that it was coming off slow. There was low bounce too. Just the start we got; we could have pushed to 180-200. We lost wickets in consecutive balls and then felt 160-170 was probably ten-odd runs short. But the way it played in the second innings, it was par.”

For PBKS, Rahul Chahar’s 3-23, including two wickets in the eighth over, and Harshal Patel’s 3-24 gave hope to the hosts to do a double against CSK. PBKS looked sorted to chase down the total by reaching 62/2 in 7.5 overs. But after that, PBKS suffered a batting meltdown to be reduced to 90/8 and eventually ended up with 139/9.

“I thought we bowled really well as a group. Rahul Chahar bowled really well, and the way Harshal Patel finished off. We were happy as a group at the halfway stage but unfortunately, it was not meant to be.”

“We thought it (the pitch) was going to be slightly quicker, have more bounce. It was a bit slower, but it was similar throughout the game. We have a couple of days off and then we play against RCB. We have to move on and keep fighting hard,” said PBKS skipper Sam Curran.

PBKS will stay on in Dharamsala to host Royal Challengers Bengaluru on May 9, while CSK travel to Ahmedabad to face off against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium on May 10.