Chennai, Apr 14 (PTI) Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad on Tuesday said it is “coming together slowly” for Chennai Super Kings after the five-time IPL winners recorded a second consecutive win, beating Kolkata Knight Riders by 32 runs here.
Undergoing a transition, CSK came into this contest after a comprehensive 23-run win over Delhi Capitals and produced another convincing show to beat KKR and move one spot up to eighth in the points table.
“Slowly, slowly, it is starting to come together, I feel,” Gaikwad told broadcaster after the match.
“Everyone kind of knows what their role is, which overs and what lengths to bowl at. I think they are adjusting and adapting really well according to what (the) team needs.
“As I said, slowly, slowly, we are getting better and better and that is a good sign for us,” he said.
Gaikwad said CSK were aiming for a total in range of 220 but what they eventually put on the board — 192/5 — was also good enough.
“We defended a good score. I felt it was a par score, given that the wicket drastically changed after the first seven or eight overs,” he said.
“It started spinning a bit, it started stopping a bit. We were first looking at 220, 210, but then, we thought anything around 190, 180 would be a good score and after that, we just had to get a good power play in bowling,” Gaikwad added.
CSK’s win was set up by Noor Ahmad (4-0-21-3), who broke the back of KKR’s chase with a flurry of wickets. The Afghan spinner said it was important to keep his fingers dry in the hot and humid conditions.
“The dew was there, and it was humid, so (I was trying to) keep my fingers dry and that helped me a lot to hit the right areas,” he said.
“I think the ball was not coming really well to the bat and to get advantage of that, it was good. I will keep putting effort to contribute for my team in the coming matches,” he said.
KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane said while his bowlers did a commendable job of keeping CSK under 200, their batters just could not get any momentum.
“No real momentum with the bat, absolutely. I thought with the ball we (did) really good, 190 on this wicket was really good, especially (when in) the powerplay they got 70 odd runs,” Rahane said.
“After that, pulling back to 190 was an amazing job from our bowling unit. I thought initially with our batting, we just got 36 or 37 runs in the powerplay.” Rahane said it is important to stay positive as KKR remained winless in the tournament after five matches.
“It’s tough at the moment. Yes, we’re not winning matches, it’s tough. What is important for all of us as a group is to stay positive, keep our head up, keep our chin up, just focus on the moment,” he said.
“It’s all about being positive and keep our heads up,” Rahane said.
The KKR skipper was full of praise for right-arm pacer Kartik Tyagi, who clocked 148.2kmph on the delivery off which he dismissed Sanju Samson (48).
“He is working really hard in the nets. He is been bowling really good and a great talent. The pace which he’s bowling at the moment has been amazing. Game by game, he is improving his skills,” Rahane said. PTI DDV DDV AH AH
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