It was Chennai Super Kings' worst defeat by a runs margin at their fortress, the MA Chidambaram Stadium, and it ended an eight-match winning streak at that venue against their southern rivals Royal Challengers Bengaluru. CSK were never really in the game after they slipped to 26 for 3 in a chase of 197, and their captain Ruturaj Gaikwad felt they should not have been chasing a target of that magnitude in the first place.
Gaikwad suggested at the post-match presentation that 170 was a par score on a pitch that he described as "sticky".
"To be honest, I still feel 170 was a par score on this wicket," he said. "It wasn't that great to bat [on] but probably bad day in the field cost us really badly. [At the] end of the day, when you're chasing 170, you bat differently, you kind of have little bit of time when you go in to bat, but when you're chasing 20 runs extra on a wicket where you know it's going to be sticky, and going to stop [on the batter] after the ball gets old, you have to bat slightly differently in the powerplay."
RCB captain Rajat Patidar was the chief beneficiary of CSK's bad day in the field. Deepak Hooda and Rahul Tripathi put him down in the 12th and 13th overs, when he was on 17 and 19. Then, later in that 13th over, Khaleel Ahmed put in a dive at short third when Patidar, now on 20, edged one in his direction, only for the ball to fall marginally short of him.
Patidar went on to top-score with 51 off 32 balls. All the drops, Gaikwad felt, prevented CSK's spin attack of Noor Ahmad, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja from being able to put pressure on new batters at the crease.
"Definitely a different scenario when you have three world-class spinners in your team," Gaikwad said. "You want a new batter to face them. That's where I think the game changes a lot as well, even the last game changed a lot, and it just didn't really happen this time.
"They just kept going, we dropped catches at crucial times, and there was always an extra six or extra boundary that was coming after that. So just think the momentum kept going and it didn't really stop till the last over."
CSK lost Tripathi and Gaikwad early in their chase with both batters out while taking on the short ball notwithstanding Josh Hazlewood's steep bounce. Gaikwad felt the magnitude of the target forced the batters to take more chances than they otherwise might have.
"We know Rahul backs his shots, and I went and backed my shots as well. Sometimes it works, sometimes doesn't. But as I said, there are times when you have par score in your mind, and probably when you're chasing 20 runs extra, you always want to be a step ahead of the game while you're chasing. That's what the thinking was. Didn't really work out but still happy that we didn't lose by a big margin and at the end it was just 50 runs."
That Gaikwad described CSK's biggest home defeat in those terms suggested he was making an effort not to overreact to the result; he said it was inevitable for teams to have results of this kind in a tournament of the IPL's length.
"We just have to turn up mentally and just look at which are the areas we can improve," he said, when asked what CSK would do in the short turnaround between this game and their next one, against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on Sunday. "Definitely you're going to have a bad day batting and bowling in a tournament like IPL, but I feel the fielding has to improve a lot, and I think we should come back stronger in the fielding department."