Chennai Super Kings won by 15 runs over Gujarat Titans in the Qualifier 1 of the ongoing IPL 2023 on May 23 at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Gujarat Titans won the toss and opted to bowl first. Chennai Super Kings managed 172 runs in their allotted 20 overs, courtesy of an 87-run opening stand between Ruturaj Gaikwad (60) and Devon Conway (40). Later, Rayudu scored 17 off 9 whereas Ravindra Jadeja hit 22 off 16 as well.

While chasing, Shubman Gill top-scored with 42 whereas Rashid Khan scored 30 but others couldn’t manage much score as the CSK bowlers successfully put the pressure on them. And, they eventually bowled out for 157. However, with this win, CSK reached the IPL final for the 10th time as well.

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Here is what the captains and the player of the match said after the game:

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Player of the Match said as quoted by Cricbuzz: Last 3-4 games in Chennai have been different. First few games wicket was better. Have had to adapt. Look to rotate strike, capitalise on loose deliveries. Both are great players (Conway and Faf). Faf was someone who was aggressive from ball one. Conway has great batsmanship. I would say the knock of 60 (what was more satisfying – 60 or the catch).

MS Dhoni said as quoted by Cricbuzz: IPL is too big to say it’s just another final. Used to be 8 top teams, now it’s 10. I won’t say it’s just another final. It’s hard work of 2 months. Everybody has contributed. Yes, middle-order has not got ample opportunity. GT are a fantastic team and they’ve chased very well, so the thought was to get them in. But it was a good toss to lose. If Jaddu gets conditions that help him. he’s very difficult to hit. His bowling changed the game. Not to forget his partnership with Moeen. We try to create an environment and work out what is the strength of a fast bowler. We try to give them confidence and tell them ‘please try to explore your bowling’. We try to motivate them as much as possible. Support staff is there, Bravo and Eric are there. You see the wicket and according to that you keep adjusting the field. I can be a very annoying captain, I keep shifting fielders 2-3 feet. Only request I ask from the fielders is, keep an eye on me. If there’s a dropped catch there will be no reaction (from me), just keep an eye on me. I don’t know (back next year?) – I have 8-9 months to decide. Why take that headache now. I’ll always be there for CSK, where it’s playing or something outside.

Deepak Chahar said as quoted by Cricbuzz: Everything’s okay, one more to go. I think the length, we saw them bowling, it was sticking and we decided to bowl a full length, didn’t experiment too much, let them (the batters) take the risks. Chasing 170 in a semi-final with the crowd against you is difficult. I have played in playoffs before, I just told them about the pressure (when asked about what he told the juniors), I just asked them to confident about their skills, just one ball or catch is very important at this stage. We have the belief, we have done it so many times (on reaching the finals), the benefit of having seniors in big contests matter a lot, we have been there previously and it does help.

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Hardik Pandya said as quoted by Cricbuzz: I think we were quite spot-on (with the ball), but we made basic errors and that costed us the game. The kind of bowlers we had, I felt we conceded 15 extra runs. A lot of things we did right. We bowled a couple of soft balls in between. We were executing our plans and then in between we gave some runs. I don’t think we need to look much into it. We have to play two days later, we have to play one more game to make sure we reach the final. Just focus on the things that we’ve done really well this season. That’s the beauty about him (Dhoni), with his mind and the way he uses the bowlers, he’ll make sure that you’ll feel like he’s adding 10 runs. We kept losing wickets, he kept making sure that he used the right bowlers, happy for him as well. It would be a really good sight to meet him on Sunday if we can win the next game. Regrets are not good in life, we expected dew might come, it didn’t come. We gave 15 runs extra and we didn’t do the right things in both the departments. We’ll give a crack again after two days, let’s hope for the best. (Will you watch the match tomorrow?) Yeah, my brother is playing, I hope I see him there (Ahmedabad).