Chennai Super Kings captain Rituraj Gaikwad is unhappy with his team's performance against Rajasthan Royals. Chennai's team suffered its second consecutive defeat in the 18th edition of the IPL on Sunday. Before Rajasthan, Chennai had to face defeat at home against the team Royal Challengers Bangalore. Now captain Rituraj has blamed a poor start and poor fielding for the defeat.

Tripathi failed for the third consecutive match.

With the help of Nitish Rana and Wanindu Hasaranga, Rajasthan Royals won the match played at Barsapara Stadium on Sunday by six runs. Chasing 183 runs, CSK lost the wicket of Rachin Ravindra for zero, while Rahul Tripathi was dismissed after the powerplay. Rahul could score 23 runs and failed for the third consecutive match.

'We are not getting a good start'

After the match, Rituraj said, 'We are not getting a good start, but once we do, things will be different. We gave eight to 10 extra runs due to poor fielding and this is something we need to improve. Gaikwad's courageous innings of 63 runs had raised hopes for CSK, but the team could not win due to wickets falling at regular intervals.

Why is he batting at number three instead of opening?

When asked the reason for batting at number three, the Chennai captain said that it was a pre-planned strategy. He also gave the example of Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu for this. Rituraj said, 'Ajinkya batted at number three for the last few years, while Rayudu handled the middle overs. We thought it would be better if I bat later, while Tripathi can attack in the beginning. This was decided during the auction itself.

Rituraj took a dig at his team

Rituraj took a dig at the poor opening given to Chennai and said with a smile, 'I have no problem with it. Anyway, I am getting a chance to bat early in every match.' Opening has been a big problem for Chennai this season. Rachin Ravindra and Rahul Tripathi had a partnership of 11 runs in the first match against Mumbai and eight runs in the second match against Bangalore. Tripathi was out after scoring two runs in the first match and five runs in the second match. However, Rachin scored 65 runs in the first match and 41 runs in the second match. He could not open the account in the third match. Chennai's next match is against Delhi on April 5 in Chennai.

Riyan Parag is happy with the win.

At the same time, Rajasthan Royals' acting captain Riyan Parag is relieved to end his campaign with a win in Guwahati. Parag said, 'We felt that we were 20 runs short. We were batting well in the middle overs, but we lost some wickets early. However, our bowlers executed our plans well.'

'We saved 20 runs with excellent fielding'

Parag said, 'We have had two difficult matches. In one we gave 280 runs and in the other, we could not defend 180 runs. This win was very important.' Parag did excellent fielding and took a brilliant catch from Shivam Dubey (18 runs). At the same time, Shimron Hetmyer took an excellent low catch of Dhoni in the 20th over. Parag said, 'The 20 runs we had scored less, we made up for it with fielding. We are working very hard with our fielding coach Dishant Yagnik.'

Rajasthan's next match with Punjab

Rajasthan's team will now face Punjab Kings in Mullanpur on April 5. Talking about the match held on Sunday, Rajasthan Royals defeated CSK by six runs with the help of Nitish Rana's innings of 81 runs in 36 balls and four wickets by leg-spinner Wanindu Hasranga. Rajasthan scored 182 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs. In response, Chennai Super Kings failed once again to achieve a target of more than 180 runs even once after 2019. The team could only score 176 runs for six wickets in 20 overs. Captain Rituraj Gaikwad scored 63 runs, but no other batsman could survive due to which the team had to face its second consecutive defeat.

Dhoni also could not get the team victory.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was once the best finisher in the world, could not get the team victory. After coming at number nine in the last match, he came to the crease at number seven in this match. Then Chennai needed 39 runs in 12 balls. He hit a four and a six to Tushar Deshpande. However, the CSK team could not score the 20 runs needed to win in the last over.

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