Chennai: Five time winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, who anchored the to a five wicket win over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday evening, said it was a wonderful feeling to win the last home game at the M.A.Chidambaram Stadium here, even as RR skipper Sanju Samson felt that the team fell short by 20 to 25 runs on a two-paced wicket.
Chasing RR's 141 for five, CSK scored 145 for five and won with ten balls to spare, with opener Ruturaj anchoring the chase with an unbeaten 42 of 41 balls for its fifth win at home this season and CSK's 50th IPL victory at Chepauk in its 71st match and became the third team to achieve this milestone.
The RR bowlers did tried their best to stretch the low scoring contest till the 19th over after posting a below par total.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Eden Gardens) and the Mumbai Indians (Wankhede Stadium) have achieved this feat with 50 wins in a particular venue.
With this win, CSK jumped to the third spot with 14 points (seven wins in 13 matches) and need to win its last league match against RCB at Bengaluru on Saturday next to confirm its spot in the knockout. Sunrisers Hyderabad too had 14 points (12 matches), but CSK was placed ahead on better net run rate.
RR with 16 points (12 matches) is placed second behind leaders KKR with 18 points (12 matches).
Speaking after guiding the team to a win that kept CSK in the hunt for a play offs, Ruturaj said it was good to get a win.
On the game, he said "when we were 55-1, I felt we were cruising. One or two wickets can allow the opposition to get back. As a team, we have stroke-players so my job was to stay there till the end."
"Generally, I thought we were cruising and there was no pressure until the end", he said.
About the pitch, Ruturaj said "definitely we would love to play on such wickets. It brings our spinners into play and with huge boundaries, there is an amount of risk to hit sixes."
On the other hand, Sanju Samson felt that the team fell short by 20-25 runs.
Asked about what score RR had in mind after choosing to bat first under hot and humid conditions with dew factor not in picture, he said "I think after the powerplay, the message was the wicket was slow and two-paced. Bounce was also not as much as we expected."
"When I was batting in the middle, the score I was expecting was around 170. We were 20-25 runs short. We tried our best, they knew the conditions and they bowled smartly."
CSK medium pacer Simarjeet Singh, who picked up a wicket each in his first three overs, including two in his first spell of two overs, bowled well today, Sanju said.
"We are not very sure what to expect in away games. Looking at the venue, we thought batting first might be better. I think when you have a score to chase, on these wickets, they had a better idea and a better hand in this, Sanju said.
"We expected it to be slower in the second innings but it was a touch better. When you play here in night games, it is a no-brainer (to chase) with all the dew coming in. The summer is getting hotter in India and as the wicket heats up", he said,
"I was expecting it to slow down. They also batted really well. The way the game went to the 19th over, the wicket was tough to bat on. Very normal to keep thinking about the qualification at this stage. The conversations we are having is to control what we can do. At the team brief, I will probably ask them to continue the process and hoping to get on the better side next game", the RR skipper said.
