CSK loses by 7 wickets to LSG (Image: IPL/BCCI)
Chennai Super Kings batting coach Michael Hussey admitted that the five-time champions now have no room for error after their defeat to Lucknow Super Giants left their IPL 2026 qualifying hopes hanging by a thread.CSK suffered a major setback on Friday as LSG comfortably chased down 188, buoyed by 90 off 38 balls from Mitchell Marsh on the lively Ekana Stadium surface. The defeat left Chennai stranded with 12 points from 13 matches, meaning they will now likely need to win their remaining two league matches, while also relying on other results, to qualify for the qualifiers.
Despite the difficult situation, Hussey remained optimistic and said that the team would treat all remaining matches as if they were a knockout match.“Well, I mean, I really like this time of the tournament because every game seems like a final, you know, and we’re in this situation now,” Hussey said, with CSK now needing wins in both their remaining matches while also banking on some other results in their favour.“We’ll have to win our last two games. I mean, I haven’t studied the table closely. Yes, there are a lot of teams competing for that two places probably in the top four,” he said.“This is the stage where the pressure is on everyone, not just on us, but on all the other teams as well. And you can see some crazy things happening. So we still have a chance… We still have faith that we can get through this,” he said during the post-match press conference.
Speaking after the match during the post-match presentation, Gaikwad remained calm despite the setback and insisted that the qualification scenario was “simple” for his team going forward.”Well, the first challenge is to reach Chennai. It’s a long journey. Then, just making sure we come back and improve the areas we need to improve, and yes, try to adapt and evaluate the conditions as quickly as possible which is simple math for us. Win every match for the number of games we play. So I guess nothing is simple. I mean it’s simple and there’s nothing complicated. It’s very easy here for us. No need to worry.
Just make sure we have a good day. Make your day and hopefully we can turn things around.” Gaikwad said.