A two-paced Chepauk strip on which spinners always come into play has been Chennai Super Kings' 17-year template. Thus, current skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad finds no reason to deviate from that after a five-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in a low-scoring IPL encounter in Chennai on Sunday.
While CSK still need to win their last game 'away', against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, to seal a play-offs berth with 16 points and a healthy positive net run-rate, Gaikwad said it was a "wonderful feeling" to cap off the league engagements at 'home' with a comfortable victory.
"Definitely, we would love to play on such wickets. It brings our spinners into play, and with huge boundaries there is an amount of risk to hit sixes," the astute young captain said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Taking the pace off deliveries always creates problems and the Royals struggled to score, posting a below-par total of 141 for 5 in 20 overs.
"That is always the plan whenever you come here. Sometimes the wicket is flatter and we go to the yorkers. When the wicket is slow and you have a bigger side, you want to take the pace off," he explained.
Gaikwad dropped anchor and batted till the end, scoring an unbeaten 42 off 41 deliveries as that was the need of the hour.
"As a team, we have stroke-players; so my job was to stay there till the end," said Gaikwad, talking about his role.
He did feel that their Powerplay score made it easy despite losing a few wickets in the middle overs.
"When we were 55-1, I felt we were cruising. One or two wickets can allow the opposition to get back. Generally, I thought we were cruising and there was no pressure until the end."
Man of the match Simarjeet Singh, who was out of action for more than a year before this IPL, thanked the CSK management for taking good care of him.
"I am very thankful to the CSK management, the physio and my trainer for treating me the way they did when I was injured. It is a blessing."
Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson felt it is very difficult to predict the kind of track that will be on offer in away games, but he also understands that with peak summer approaching, the tracks will have wear and tear and get slower.
"We are not really sure what to expect from away games. We thought batting first was the better option.
"They had a better idea of what to chase being used to playing here, we thought it would have been slower in the second innings, but the wicket was instead better.
"When you play at night chasing is a no brainer due to the dew. The pitch gets heated up during summers so I expected the wicket to slow down in the second innings," said Samson.
Rajasthan Royals are on 16 points and with two games left there is a very good chance of them finishing in the top two with two shots at a place in the play-offs.
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