Ruturaj Gaikwad admitted his own failure at the top hurt Chennai Super Kings as they slumped to a heavy loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, elaborating on key moments in the post-match press conference. CSK were rocked early in the chase of 250, collapsing to 30 for 3 after losing Ruturaj, Sanju Samson and Ayush Mhatre. That early damage proved decisive despite a spirited response later. Reflecting on the fightback, Ruturaj said in the post-match conference: “Well, even I was surprised, to be honest. Great fight by Sarfaraz, Prashant Veer, Jamie Overton, even to some extent Shivam Dube. So I think, maybe I would have, contributed more top of the order, you never know, we would have chased it down. So definitely it’s on me today.” He highlighted how the efforts of Sarfaraz Khan, Prashant Veer and Jamie Overton kept CSK in the contest briefly, but admitted the game had already slipped due to the poor start. Ruturaj also elaborated on a crucial moment in the field that could have shifted momentum. Virat Kohli was dropped early, and RCB capitalised fully. Speaking about that phase, he said: “We would have had, as you rightly said, if we would have taken early chance of Virat Kohli, I think that was, I mean, maybe we would have had momentum to ourselves. But I think, we still had the game in our hands till the 13th, 14th over, and that’s when the momentum really shifted.” That shift came dramatically at the death, when Tim David tore into the CSK attack. Ruturaj pointed out that they almost had an opportunity to dismiss him earlier. On that moment, he said in the press conference: “Well, you’re right, KP. I think, Anshul almost got a wicket of him. Unfortunate to be illegal delivery, but yeah, after that, he just smacked all around the park and, as you rightly said, hats off to him.” RCB’s late surge, powered by Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar and David, took the game away completely. For Ruturaj, the takeaway was clear. Missed chances, an underwhelming start with the bat, and a brutal finish from the opposition combined to seal CSK’s fate.
