New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings The captain Rituraj Gaikwad He admitted that his team let the game slip away in the middle overs as they lost IPL 2026 to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs.Gaekwad explained that based on SRH’s strong start, they expected a total around 220-230, so keeping them below 200 felt like a win. However, the chase derailed after the 10-over mark when CSK scored just four runs in two overs, putting the pressure on.
“Looking at his powerplay, I was looking at a score around 220-230. To get him behind by 30 runs, I would have taken him under 200 any day. He needed just 80 runs (from the bat) in 10 overs. From there, it was just about building a couple’s partnership. We scored only 4 runs in the next 2 overs after the 10 over mark. Chasing 12-13 at the death is going to be tough,” he said.Batting first, SRH posted 194/9 thanks to quick half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma and Henrik Klaasen. CSK bowlers including Anshul Kamboj did well to keep the score level.In reply, CSK got off to a good start from Ayush Mahatre, Matthew Short and Sarfraz Khan, but kept losing wickets. SRH bowlers like Ishan Malinga and Nitish Kumar Reddy controlled the game in the later stages.Despite the loss, Gaikwad praised his bowlers and highlighted Kamboj’s confidence: “It’s been three in a row where the bowling unit has done really well. Even the power play today, I thought Abhishek played brilliantly. I think everyone did a good job (with the ball).“He (Anshul Kamboj) is working very hard on his bowling, especially the death bowling. Very rarely do you get bowlers who have clarity and say to the captain, I know what I have to do, this is what I am going to do.”
