'We could have chased better,' says Gujarat Titans batter Vijay Shankar

Gujarat Titans batter Vijay Shankar has blamed the teams batters after their loss to Chennai Super Kings in the IPL Qualifier 1 here saying we could have chased betterIn the match CSK did well to reach 172 for 7 on a slow Chepauk pitch after Hardik Pandya opted to bowlConsidering the conditions it turned out to be much more than a competitive total as Gujarat Titans had a rare off day to end with 157 all out in 20 oversI think we could have chased better We could have got the game much closer the cricketer from Tamil Nadu told reporters after the match on TuesdayThe defending champions went down by 15 runs in pursuit of 173The GT chase was derailed by the CSK spinners who squeezed the run flow in the middle with Ravindra Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana keeping things tight and also picking up wicketsI think they CSK bowled pretty well in the middle overs The middle overs are very very important for any team that is chasing We lost wickets Otherwise if you see we lost by 15 runsIf two batters were batting things would have been different It is just about losing a wicket at the wrong time Maybe a partnership of 20 30 runs in the middle could have got us closer to the game Shankar saidHe was asked about the shuffle in the batting order Shankar had batted brilliantly against Royal Challengers Bangalore a few days ago at No3 but came in at No5 against CSK with his team at 884Actually if you see overall in this season all the batters have played in different positions So it is not just this game most of the gamesI think that was the strength of our batting unit as well Whoever went in different situations we were able to adapt to it and get runs for the team he addedWhen you lose a wicket and when you lose a game things will look odd that we have changed a lot and all But we have been playing like this overall right from game 1 until now I think we have shuffled our batting according to the conditions and situations and we have done wellShankar and Rashid Khan managed to revive GTs chances before their dismissals put paid to their hopesEven the over that I got out I felt I could have calculated a little better I could have targeted in a better way So it was a great learning for us I think we have won a lot of games chasing and this is one of game that we had said Shankar who this season has scored 301 runs at 16011 in 12 matchesHe was optimistic of the team doing well in Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad where it will take on the winner of the Eliminator between Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super GiantsI think till now we have been playing a lot of home and away games So it is just about going there and adapting to our conditions as quickly as we can And overall weve been playing wonderful cricket So one game wont change much So it is just about regrouping and coming out and giving our best for the team he addedAlso Read IPL 2023 We conceded 15 extra runs says Hardik PandyaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever