Chennai Super Kings’ skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad was candid in his assessment of his team's performance after their shocking 50-run loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru, which ended an impressive eight-match winning streak against the latter. CSK, who have been dominant at their home ground, Chepauk, were left frustrated after an uncharacteristic performance in the field led to their downfall.

"To be honest, I still feel 170 was a par score on this wicket. 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 after the ball gets old, you have to bat slightly differently in the powerplay," Gaikwad said during the post-match presentation.

Chasing a total of 190, CSK lost Rahul Tripathi and Ruturaj Gaikwad in the powerplay itself. Reacting to the early wickets, Gaikwad said that the heavy chase compelled batters to take chances. 

"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."

CSK's fielding also remained poor as Deepak Hooda and Rahul Tripathi dropped RCB skipper Rajat Patidar in the 12th and 13th overs, when he was on 17 and 19 respectively. Later, Patidar went on to score 51 off 32, taking the side to a competitive total. 

"Definitely a different scenario when you have three world-class spinners in your team. 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."