CSK are currently holding ninth spot in the team standings after five losses in six games.
Asked to bat first, CSK posted 103/9 in 20 overs – their lowest-ever score at home venue. It was a listless performance with the bat as no one managed to touch the 40-run mark. Shivam Dube was the top scorer with 31* off 29 balls.
Sunil Narine (3-13), Harshit Rana (2-16) and Varun Chakaravarthy (2-22) were the wrecker-in-chief with the ball for KKR.
Chasing 104 to win, the defending champions got over the line with eight wickets and 59 deliveries to spare, handing CSK their fifth consecutive defeat of the season in six matches so far.
After the game, former Australian captain Michael Clarke stated that the five-time champions are totally down on confidence and now is the time for them to risk everything for getting wins in remainder of the tournament.
“Wicket looked quite tough to bat on. There was a little bit of movement with the new ball and certainly some spin. I think Chennai Super Kings got their plan wrong. The way they went about it - it's clear they're down on confidence. And their intent - well, there was no intent.”
“At the moment, it seems like a very conservative approach - just trying to get close to winning or avoid a big defeat. Instead, they should throw it all on the line, risk everything, and try to win the game.”
“That kind of change is easier said than done. Just like a good, confident feeling can become infectious in a winning dressing room, the same applies when you're losing. That losing feeling lingers, and it's hard to get rid of sometimes,” said Clarke on JioStar.
Veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who had a stint with CSK in IPL 2020, suggested that the franchise needs to back young, uncapped and hungry players to get their campaign back on track.
“At this stage, I think Chennai Super Kings should consider bringing in youngsters. Someone like Andre Siddarth, who is a solid middle-order batter, deserves a chance. You've already seen enough of Rahul Tripathi and Deepak Hooda.”
“So why not give these young players an opportunity to show what they're capable of? A new face might come in, get some quick runs, and boost confidence - not just for themselves but for the whole team. Not saying they should make wholesale changes—but maybe one or two tweaks to freshen things up.”
Chawla also praised Sunil Narine for picking figures of 3-13 in his four overs, a spell where he didn't concede a single boundary.
“It's been so many years, and yet batters still struggle to read Sunil Narine. These kinds of surfaces really suit his bowling because he's never too full, never too short. The pace he bowls at is perfect - it doesn't give batters much time. We saw that in Rahul Tripathi's dismissal, and even Ravindra Jadeja was late while trying to play the late cut.”
“We've seen Narine get Mahendra Singh Dhoni out in a similar fashion before. While we said it's a good wicket to bowl on, you still need to bowl well - and that's exactly what Sunil did and he deserves a lot of credit,” he concluded.
Chennai Super Kings will next face Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Monday (April 14).
(With IANS Inputs)