Chennai Super Kings registered their second consecutive win in IPL 2026 on Tuesday, when they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 32 runs. After the win, skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad said it is slowly coming together.
CSK were coming into the match after a convincing 23-run win over Delhi Capitals and produced another clinical show against KKR to move up to eighth position on the IPL 2026 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 reckoned 192 for 5 was a par score on the surface as they were eyeing something around 220.
“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 powerplay in bowling,” Gaikwad added.
With the pitch aiding spin, Afghanistan spinner Noor Ahmad made good use of the conditions as he finished with figures of 3 for 21.
“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 also said.
On the other hand, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane lauded his bowlers for restricting CSK under 200, but said the batting lacked 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.”
KKR are yet to win a match this season and Rahane wants his players to remain positive.
“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,” he added.
