Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad would be relieved after his team’s dominant performance in the last two matches. Having lost three consecutive games, the Gaikwad-led team bounced back with two consecutive wins against Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders. This would surely be a big confidence boost for the CSK team, especially their bowlers who played a big role in these victories.

Talking about Kolkata Knight Riders, they faced their fourth consecutive defeat of the season and were left at the bottom of the points table, still waiting for their first win of the season. Their only points came from a draw against the Punjab Kings, as the match was washed out by rain at the Eden Gardens. Kolkata’s batting unit collapsed on another occasion as big names like Finn Allen and Cameron Green were again affected by the opposition bowlers.

Sanju Samson, Dewald Brevis and Ayush Mhatre gave CSK a promising total

Chennai Super Kings may have lost a few matches to begin with, and their bowling platform was largely compromised. However, it was evident that the CSK batsmen had never lost their rhythm and would not fail to score crucial runs for them.

After coming out to bat, Sanju Samson scored a hat-trick of four through offside. Soon after, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad was caught in the deep mid-wicket region after attempting to bowl KKR spinner Anukul Roy. Ayush Mhatre has been their original star as he made great use of the powerplay and gave CSK the early start that could be the run margin for their victory after the series ended in the opponent’s favour.

Samson then set up another quick partnership between Sanju Samson and Dewald Bevis for the third wicket. However, after Samson’s dismissal, the scoring percentage dropped drastically and they were only able to score runs properly on a few of the balls. Sanju Samson has been dominating the format of late.

KKR’s spinners also had an exciting number of runs, while CSK’s batsmen struggled to keep up with the rapid flow of runs in the middle order. However, the power play begins and the company finds itself in the middle phase, which helped them the most with such a huge goal.

KKR continues its losing record in IPL this season

Kolkata Knight Riders struggled with a slow start in the powerplay as they could only manage 36 runs in the powerplay with the loss of two vital wickets. This was also the third lowest powerplay score in this edition of TATA IPL 2026.

Kolkata Knight Riders now have some good bowlers but the batsmen have failed to put up decent scores. Even though players like Cameron Green, Rinku Singh and Rovman Powell are part of the KKR XI, they have struggled to maintain their batting form.

Another defeat for them, after Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi were eliminated from the match in consecutive overs. CSK, however, missed some crucial catches in the game, which had no final impact on the game.

With Khaleel Ahmed and Anshul Kamboj once again stepping up for their team, Chennai Super Kings restricted them to a score of 160, with Anshul Kamboj sharing the wicket tally with Gujarat Titans pacer Prasidh Krishna.

We needed a batsman who would bat deep and then hold out at the end – the KKR captain’s honest view on his team’s performance.

“I thought with the ball they treated us really well. 190 on this wicket was really good, especially the powerplay they got, 70-odd runs. After that, getting back to 190 was an incredible job by our bowling unit. Initially I thought with our batting, we only got 36 or 37 runs in the powerplay. I thought that was really important.”

“In the middle phase, hitting the spinners was a bit difficult, but apart from that, the wicket was really good. We needed a batsman to bat deep and then take it at the end,” said the KKR captain praising the Knight Riders’ bowling.

“I think all the credit goes to him. I mean, he is working very hard in the nets. He has been bowling very well and he is very talented. The pace at which he is playing at the moment has been incredible. So I am very happy for him. Game by game, he is improving his skills,” the KKR coach added.

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