CSK lost against LSG by 7 wickets (Photo: IPL/BCCI)
Chennai Super Kings Batting coach Michael Hussey The five-time champions now have no margin for error after their defeat by Lucknow Supergiants, with their IPL 2026 playoff hopes hanging by a thread.CSK suffered a major shock on Friday when LSG comfortably scored 90 off 38 balls chasing 188. Mitchell Marsh On a lively surface of a single stadium. The defeat left Chennai with 12 points from 13 matches, meaning they now need to win both of their remaining league games, possibly while also relying on other results to qualify for the playoffs.Despite the tough situation, Hussey remained optimistic and said the team will approach every remaining match like a knockout match.“Well, I mean, I actually like this time of the tournament because it feels like every game is like a final, you know, and we’re in that situation now,” Hussey said, adding that CSK now need victories in their remaining two games while relying on a few other results to go in their favour.“We have to win our last two matches. I mean I haven’t studied the table that closely. Yes, a lot of teams are fighting for maybe the last couple in the top four,” he said.“That’s where (the tournament stage) is really the pressure on everybody, not just us, but all the teams. And you can see some crazy things happen. So we still have a chance … we still believe we can get through it,” he said during the post-match press conference.Speaking after the match during the post-match presentation, Gaekwad remained calm despite the setback and insisted that the qualification scenario for his team was “simple”.“Well, the first challenge is getting to Chennai. It’s a long flight. After that, just make sure that we come back and improve on the areas that we need to improve on and yeah, try and adapt to situations as quickly as possible and anticipate them and it’s a simple calculation for us. Win every single game we play. So I think nothing is easy. I mean, it’s simple, nothing complicated. It’s very easy for us here. Nothing to worry about. Just make sure we have a good day. Count whoever has a good day and hopefully we can turn things around,” Gaekwad said.
