Chennai Super Kings left the table-topper Gujarat Titans’ underbelly precariously uncovered on the pointy finish of the league stage of IPL 2025 on the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday (May 25, 2025).
Although the customer couldn’t keep away from the wood spoon, M.S. Dhoni’s aggressive captaincy, with pinpoint discipline placements, ensured CSK ended its marketing campaign with a large 83-run victory. GT, in the meantime, has been left like a cat on sizzling bricks after one more underwhelming present from its middle-order because the playoffs beckon.
After Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler, and Sherfane Rutherford had been despatched again into the hut inside the primary 5 overs, it was left to Chennai’s homeboys from GT, B. Sai Sudharsan and M. Shahrukh Khan, to provoke the rebuilding act.
When outdated warhorse Ravindra Jadeja ensured their partnership remained value solely 55 runs within the eleventh over, Titans had been already combating a dropping battle.
Earlier, CSK opted to bat and scored 68 to equal its highest PowerPlay rating this yr. It may have completed higher had Ayush Mhatre not mistimed a loft into the mid-off skies within the fourth over. The India under-19 captain, solely moments earlier, had taken 28 runs off an Arshad Khan over.
A bungled catching try from Shahrukh Khan handed Urvil Patel a five-ball reprieve till R. Sai Kishore despatched again the wicketkeeper-batter within the tenth over.
With two left-handed batters in Devon Conway and Shivam Dube on the crease, Gill couldn’t resist the lip-smacking prospect of throwing in a sprint of right-arm off-spin into the combination. In got here Shahrukh Khan, who had final bowled in a List A T20 throughout the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final December. The transfer paid off instantly with Dube hitting straight down the throat of the long-on fielder.
Dewald Brevis supplied a glimpse into CSK’s future, scoring the second-quickest fifty within the franchise’s historical past, off 19 balls. In the sixteenth over, he let loose a battle cry by carting Rashid Khan straight down the bottom.
With that, the Afghan spinner, already in his leanest IPL patch, ended up conceding the joint-most sixes in a single season (31).
Published – May 25, 2025 07:24 pm IST
