Ravindra Jadeja was outstanding both with the bat and the ball as the Chennai Super Kings advanced to the Indian Premier League final by beating the defending champion Gujarat Titans by 15 runs on Tuesday. This victory might mark the end of M.S. Dhoni’s time as captain of the team.
Champions four times over During the play-off, which is thought to be the 41-year-old Dhoni’s final home encounter at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai scored 172-7 and then defended that total by bowling out Gujarat for 157.
On a difficult surface for batting, the left-handed Jadeja turned in a bowling performance of 2-18 with his spin bowling after contributing 22 runs to the Chennai total. These runs helped enhance the Chennai total after Ruturaj Gaikwad’s score of 60.
As Chennai reached its 10th consecutive Indian Premier League final, the night sky was illuminated with fireworks.
Hardik Pandya and the Gujarat team will get another opportunity to advance to the championship match on Sunday in Ahmedabad. They will face off against the team that emerged victorious from the second play-off between the Lucknow Super Giants and the five-time defending champions, the Mumbai Indians.
The focus of attention continued to be on Dhoni since he is India’s most decorated player. He has led his team to two World Cup victories, including the first-ever T20 World Cup title in 2007, and he has served as a mentor to future stars such as Virat Kohli.
Dhoni has attracted enormous audiences across locations, with supporters showing up in Chennai yellow as an homage to the cricketing great. It is believed that this would be Dhoni’s final season playing in the Indian Premier League.
His hometown stadium was almost completely full, and the noise level increased significantly whenever their idol stepped into the batter’s box, where they were cheering him on.
The superstar, who has been bothered by a knee issue throughout this season but has not directly stated that he will be hanging up his boots, was dismissed by Mohit Sharma for one run off two balls, and the audience went dead almost immediately after that.
Earlier in the season, Gaikwad scored his fourth half-century of the year by capitalizing on a reprieve on two when he was removed in the second over only for the delivery to be declared no-ball. This gave him the opportunity to score his fourth half-century of the year.
He quickly transformed Chennai’s small start into a good opening stand of 87 with New Zealand’s Devon Conway, who scored 40. He responded with a six and a four and immediately converted Chennai’s modest start.
After Gaikwad’s departure, Chennai struggled, but Jadeja’s 16-ball cameo, which included two sixes, and one hit over the boundary by England’s Moeen Ali in the final over powered Chennai to what turned out to be a winning score. Jadeja’s cameo included two sixes. Moeen Ali’s smash over the fence.
With his score of 42, Gujarat’s Shubman Gill made a valiant effort to propel their pursuit, but the remainder of the batting failed.
Deepak Chahar, who knocked out Gill with his fast bowling, and the Sri Lankan pair of Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana both had two wickets to their names as well.
In his innings of 16 balls for 30, Rashid Khan attempted to pull a rabbit out of his hat, but he was out in the 19th over, and Pathirana finished the job on the penultimate ball.