IPL Play of the Day: Ruturaj Gaikwad, CSK fooled by the oldest trick in the playbook

Chennai Super Kings lost their last home match of the season. In the game against SRH, CSK failed to get over the SRH pacers who used the oldest trick in the playbook to dismantle the home team.

Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings fell to a gritty SunRisers Hyderabad team at home, complicating their playoff chances in the Indian Premier League. Playing in front of their own fans, CSK were unable to beat the Pat Cummins-led side despite almost everything going their way.

Chennai rolled out a surface that was perhaps SRH’s worst possible enemy – a black-earth wicket. The last time SRH played on a black pitch, they were bowled out for less than 100 runs, marking their worst batting performance of the season.

CSK vs SRH, IPL 2026: Update | Scorecard

To make the most of the surface, Chennai needed to win the toss and make the right calls accordingly. Fortunately for them, they won the toss. And it stopped there. Whenever CSK had a decision in their own direction, they somehow managed to blow away the advantage and slowly hand the game to SRH.

Still, it was by no means a straightforward game. The match hung in the balance deep into the last few overs of the second innings where Ishan Kishan produced a gutsy performance to hand SRH a five-wicket win with six balls to spare. The crowd also played their part, booing and taunting the SRH batsmen throughout the innings and making life difficult for the visiting side.

However, despite the difficult surface, CSK’s target of 181 runs was just not enough as SRH bit down hard on the conditions and displayed exceptional batting skills to win the match.

While Kishan top scored, Heinrich Klaasen’s masterful 47 off 26 balls may have decided the fate of the match. Klaasen, perhaps the best batsman in T20 cricket, broke the shackles when no one else could. He was the only batsman that day who looked at the wicket and treated it as a decent batting track, while almost everyone else called it a batsman’s nightmare.

But unlike ČSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, we won’t blame the bowlers in the IPL Play of the Day. Instead, we look at two specific tricks from the SRH bowlers that helped them restrict CSK after Sanju Samson’s blistering start in the powerplay.

CSK WIN THE GUESS, PICK TO BAT FIRST

And to explain this, we have to go back to the lottery.

A wicket on the black ground in Chennai meant that neither SRH nor the CSK batsmen would find the pitch comfortable to bat on. So basically this wicket became a contest between bad and worse.

Bat first and you’ll be able to enjoy a fresher wicket. If the dew doesn’t come later in the night, the level will slow down further and you can throw in your spinners to suffocate the SRH launch unit.

The second option was also obvious – bowl first, use the grip of the pitch early on and hope the dew arrives late in the second innings to make life easier for the home batsmen during the chase.

Keep both of these options in mind, Ruturaj Gaikwad chose to bat first in the night game.

SAMSON PROVIDES A BALLISTIC LAUNCH

The only way CSK controlled this game was through a breathtaking start to the power play. And that happened thanks to Sanju Samson’s brilliant first over against Nitish Reddy where he smashed the medium pacer for 17 runs.

Samson continued his barrage of shots in the second over as he took CSK to 31 for no loss in the first two overs.

When Pat Cummins saw the start, he reacted immediately. He went for third and lo and behold, a beautiful delivery in the channel outside the off stump found the edge of Samson’s bat.

From then on, the game ebbed and flowed beautifully in a proper battle between bat and ball, with neither side dominating for long periods.

CSK looked set to pull away with a partnership between Dewald Brevis and Shivam Dub that produced 59 runs in 38 balls, the best innings till then.

At that point, it all depended on Cummins and his ability to produce breakthroughs every time he returned to the attack. The SRH skipper completed his spell early in the 16th over of the innings, hoping to cause maximum damage to CSK’s batting order. However, he was unable to remove Brevis and Dube, both of whom looked capable of taking the game away in the final overs.

With no options left, Cummins entrusted Sakib Hussain and Eshan Malinga with the death.

SAKIB-ESHAN USES THE OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK

On such a surface, the SRH fast bowlers had little choice but to bowl cutters of varying lengths. Cummins, Sakib and Eshan are among the better ones in this tournament with this particular skill.

But with wickets not coming through these slower deliveries, they decided to change one simple thing. Perhaps the oldest trick in the playbook.

Prepare the batters with the cutters and then slide in a quick delivery aimed at the stumps in the hope that the natural swing of pace will be enough to beat the batter.

And surprisingly it worked.

Neither Brevis nor Dube saw the quicker one coming and both had their stumps rattling. Two back-to-back wickets completely drained the life out of CSK’s innings and they never achieved the target they were looking for.

With the momentum on their side, SRH decided to play some sensible cricket in the second innings.

Chennai, despite having the better spin attack in the game, were unable to get the two wickets that really mattered – those of Kishan and Klaasen. Both the batsmen gave chances but CSK failed to retain the ball.

and with that This season, ČSK complicated their own chances of advancing to the playoffs. The team will now have to rely on the results of the other teams to make it to the top four. CSK will need to win their last match to stay alive and will hope not to repeat such elementary mistakes.

– The end

Issued by:

Amar Panicker

Published on:

May 19, 2026 07:44 IST