🏏IPL 2026: CSK vs GT, 37th Match, MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai🏏 - Page 2

What they said:

"Nothing but support. He's a quality player, and a young captain that's working himself into the role, and he's doing a good job. I know he's getting a lot of heat from outside, but within he's got a lot of support, and he's very well respected within the side, and that will continue." - CSK head coach Stephen Fleming on Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Stats and trivia

• In T20 cricket, Hosein has dismissed Shubman Gill twice in 31 balls while giving away only 29 runs
• Hosein's record against Jason Holder is even more impressive: 13 balls, two runs, four dismissals
• Mohammed Siraj has a good record against Samson in the IPL, dismissing him three times in 35 balls for just 40 runs
• Samson has got out to Rashid Khan only once in T20 cricket but has scored at a strike rate of just 112.03 (121 runs off 108 balls)

Pitch and conditions: Win toss, bat first?

The match will be played on pitch no. 6. Of the last five IPL games played on this particular surface, teams batting first have won three. Given it's an afternoon match - and the weather is expected to be hot and humid - there is a case to bat first after winning the toss.

Thank you Raji, for the thread and for tagging.

Best wishes to both teams, but a bit more for CSK.

Second Double header of the weekend!

Match 37 in the current thread.

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 3PM IST and rest of the predictions by 3:30PM IST for match 35.

*************

For match 38 KKR vs LSG head to this link

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 7PM IST and rest of the predictions by 7:30PM IST for Match 36.

*************

If rain delays the toss, you know what to do.

Originally posted by: Savera84

Second Double header of the weekend!

Match 37 in the current thread.

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 3PM IST and rest of the predictions by 3:30PM IST for match 35.

*************

For match 38 KKR vs LSG head to this link

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 7PM IST and rest of the predictions by 7:30PM IST for Match 36.

*************

If rain delays the toss, you know what to do.

Thank you for the tags, Savera ji

Second Double header of the weekend!

Match 37 in the current thread.

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 3PM IST and rest of the predictions by 3:30PM IST for match 35.

*************

For match 38 KKR vs LSG head to this link

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 7PM IST and rest of the predictions by 7:30PM IST for Match 36.

*************

If rain delays the toss, you know what to do

Tagging second set of members.

Second Double header of the weekend!

Match 37 in the current thread.

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 3PM IST and rest of the predictions by 3:30PM IST for match 35.

*************

For match 38 KKR vs LSG head to this link

Don't forget to send your toss prediction by 7PM IST and rest of the predictions by 7:30PM IST for Match 36.

*************

If rain delays the toss, you know what to do.

The Chepauk test - Halfway through IPL 2026, and it genuinely feels like the season only just kicked off. That is the nature of time, though. It waits for nobody, and neither does this tournament. Match 37 carries its own version of that urgency. Chennai Super Kings welcome Gujarat Titans to MA Chidambaram Stadium, and fittingly for the halfway point, both sides arrive in eerily similar positions.

Three wins, four defeats apiece. And as the window begins to close, the fight for a top-four finish will get even more intense. CSK’s early weeks were rough, losing three straight before steadying themselves. Two wins followed, then a stumble, then came the redemption as the Men in Yellow displayed their most complete performance against their biggest arch-rivals. That 103-run demolition of the Mumbai Indians is seen as a resurrection point, and suddenly, the Super Kings are breathing down the necks of the top four.

GT, on the other hand, arrive in a far darker mood. Back-to-back humbling defeats have left them bruised. A 99-run thrashing at the hands of MI on home turf was bad enough to dent their net run rate. Then came the RCB defeat, quieter in margin but no less deflating. The Titans are a side searching for answers.

The walls are being re-erected - Chepauk has been stormed. Visiting armies have scaled its walls, planted their flags and marched out victorious in recent times. But the garrison never surrendered. Six consecutive home defeats had made this ground feel unfamiliar, almost foreign to a side that once made Chepauk an impenetrable stronghold. The Super Kings have been regrouping, rearming and reinforcing themselves to construct the walls brick by brick again. Two wins from three at home, both arriving back to back, suggest the fortress is finding its footing again.

The return of vintage CSK? Many are already calling it so. This is a franchise that built its legend on suffocating opposition batting lineups through spin, a web woven first by the great Muttiah Muralitharan and then handed down to the Ashwin and Jadeja duo. But every generation eventually passes the baton, and at Chepauk, it appears to have landed with Noor Ahmad and Akeal Hosein. Too early to crown them, perhaps, but the marker has been laid. Noor has been a steady, reliable presence for CSK and was their leading wicket-taker last season. Hosein's arrival, though, may have been the missing piece. Together, the last game offered the first real glimpse of what this partnership could become.

6/41 in 8 overs. This was their contribution against MI at a batting-friendly Wankhede. If that is what they produce on a batting paradise, Chepauk on Saturday afternoon could well be a frightening proposition. Not only through spin. The bowling unit that many had written off as thin on paper has hunted as a pack, and Anshul Kamboj has emerged as the leader of that hunt.

With 14 wickets, he is the leading wicket-taker in the tournament so far, showing immense maturity not only in the Powerplay phase, but also being near-clinical in the death phase, ably supported by the tall Englishman Jamie Overton. Around him, the left-arm seam options have multiplied, which gives this attack variety and venom in equal measure.

Cracks beneath the surface - Not everything that shines is gold. And in yellow, the batting carries questions that the bowling form cannot answer on its own. Sanju Samson has been nothing short of extraordinary, shouldering this lineup single-handedly. Two centuries already this season, including that quality 101* against MI that made all the difference, and he sits as CSK's leading run scorer this year.

But the drop off after Samson is where the concern lives. The rest of the batting has leaned on him heavily, and with Mhatre now ruled out, that overdependence becomes a genuine vulnerability. On a positive note, the Powerplay approach has been a genuine bright spot. 72/2, 76/3, and 73/2 across their last three games. The runs are flowing, the intent is clear, and the improvement from last season is hard to ignore. The caveat, however, sits in those wicket columns.

Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad is still searching for that fluency that once made him look undroppable at the top. Sarfaraz Khan has been hit and miss, Shivam Dube is yet to fully unleash the muscle power that makes him such a threat, and Dewald Brevis has not fired anywhere close to the level expected of him. Flashes have arrived, but flashes alone are not enough in the long run.

O Captain, My Captain - 104 runs at an average of 14.85. Highest score of 28. That is the report card Ruturaj Gaikwad carries into Saturday night, and it makes for uncomfortable reading for a batter of his calibre. Last game offered a glimpse, a good start, before he was dismissed inside the Powerplay once again. He is yet to bat outside the restrictions even once this season. But he has enjoyed playing against GT. No CSK batter has scored more runs against this opposition than their captain. 4 fifties in seven games, an average of exactly 50. Gaikwad would hope that one big innings, which is long due from his bat, comes this time around in front of the home crowd.

Thanks for the tag