New Delhi: Former Australia captain Aaron Finch has questioned the planning of Chennai Super Kings after the team suffered its third consecutive defeat in the Indian Premier League 2026 season.
CSK went down by 43 runs to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a match played in Bengaluru on Sunday night. The loss extended the Chennai franchise’s poor start to the tournament, with two of their three defeats coming by heavy margins.
Analysing the match, Finch suggested that the issue went beyond execution and pointed to problems in the team’s overall strategy. He explained that captains can accept poor execution if the plan itself is sound and players have practised it repeatedly. However, he questioned whether CSK had the right plan in place in the first place, adding that the combination of flawed planning and weak execution was a worrying sign.
RCB seized control of the game late in the innings when Tim David launched a powerful assault in the death overs. Despite CSK remaining competitive for much of the first innings, the late surge from Bengaluru shifted the momentum decisively.
Former India cricketer Ambati Rayudu also criticised the approach taken by CSK during the crucial phase of the match. He remarked that the team continued with a strategy that was clearly not working and lacked intervention from the leadership group to slow the game down and reassess the plan.
At the beginning of the 16th over, RCB were placed at 153 for three. The final overs, however, proved costly for CSK as the bowling attack conceded 19 runs in the 16th over, followed by 21 in the 17th, 14 in the 18th, and a massive 30 run burst in the 19th over before another 13 runs were added in the final over.
While Anshul Kamboj managed to hold his composure in parts, bowlers like Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad and Jamie Overton struggled to contain the scoring as RCB accelerated sharply in the closing stages.
