After Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team prevailed in a last-ball drama, beating champions Gujarat Titans by five wickets in Monday’s rain-marred final in Ahmedabad, Chennai Super Kings tied the record of five Indian Premier League (IPL) championships held by Mumbai Indians.
After being given the opportunity to bat, Gujarat scored 214 runs without losing a single wicket because to an explosive performance by their number three hitter, Sai Sudharsan, who hit an explosive 96 off 47 balls, including six sixes.
After a lengthy rain delay, the goal for Chennai’s innings was changed to 171 runs from 15 overs. Despite the high drama that ensued, the team was able to pull through and win because to Ravindra Jadeja, who scored 10 runs off the final two deliveries.
The championship game was supposed to take place on Sunday, but because of the persistent rain, the organizers had to change it to the day that was initially reserved for rainouts.
Shubman Gill stepped out to bat having scored three hundreds in his previous four innings after the captain of Chennai, Dhoni, won the toss and decided to field.
At square leg, the opener looked to have luck on his side as well, as Gill, the tournament’s leading scorer, was dropped by Deepak Chahar while the batter was on three.
Additionally, Gill was able to avoid being run out by virtue of Jadeja’s inability to effectively retrieve the ball before he broke the stumps.
On the other hand, the left-arm spinner rectified the situation in the same over.
Jadeja coaxed Gill, who was 39 at the time, out of the crease, while Dhoni, who was 41 at the time, demonstrated that age has not slowed down his reflexes by quickly removing the bails.
Wriddhiman Saha hit 54 runs before being bowled by the seamer with Dhoni collected the top edge of the ball. Chahar also took a return catch from Wriddhiman Saha and dropped it.
Then, in the penultimate over of the innings, Sudharsan tore into the Chennai bowling attack by hitting Matheesha Pathirana for back-to-back sixes, bringing him that much closer to scoring a hundred runs.
Pathirana prevented him from reaching the milestone, but Gujarat’s total could not be prevented from exceeding 200.
Rain delayed the start of play by two hours and twenty minutes in Chennai, forcing the openers to leave the field after facing only three balls.
While attempting to reach a new target after returning to the field, Ruturaj Gaikwad (26) and Devon Conway (47), who were both dismissed by Noor Ahmad in the seventh over, amassed 72 runs in the first six overs of the game.
Shivam Dube’s unbeaten 32-run performance kept Chennai in the game, but Mohit Sharma’s consecutive wickets of Ambati Rayudu and Dhoni injected new tension into the competition.
Mohit had to give up 13 runs in his last over for Chennai to win the game. However, he only gave up three runs in his first four deliveries.
When they needed 10 runs off the final two balls, Jadeja struck Mohit over the head for a six and then followed it up with a boundary to secure the victory in an exciting game.
“I was just trying to swing hard because every ball was important,” Jadeja said about the tense last over of the match.
I was prepared for everything that may occur, so I tried to swing forcefully and strike the ball in the right direction.