CHENNAI: Call off the search. Bring the sniffer dogs back to base. Or, as the kids would say, nature has healed. After the spinners played second fiddle to the quicks in 2024, the MA Chidamabaram Stadium, at least on the evidence of 40 overs on Sunday, will be kinder to the slower bowlers in 2025.
In 2024, the hosts' spinners, led by Ravindra Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana, struggled at home. Their combined return of five wickets across seven games was one of the primary reasons for their absence from the playoffs.
It took their spinners less than 20 overs to reach that mark, thanks primarily to Noor Ahmad, whose left-arm wrist spin—one of the rarest of skills in world cricket—confounded the Mumbai Indians batters on a surface assisting Ahmad. While R Ashwin and Jadeja got it to hold a touch, Ahmad spun it both ways.
Chennai spinners at Chepauk
2023: 20 wickets in eight games
2024: Five wickets in seven games
2025: Five wickets in one game
Even if Ashwin, whose homecoming was met with a roar of approval from the ground's familiar flaming yellow wall, and Jadeja weren't as effective in terms of wicket-taking, this troika represents the clearest path for the hosts to make the playoffs after missing it in 2024.
On Saturday evening, Suryakumar Yadav had called Ahmad a 'mystery spinner'. Twenty-four hours later, Ahmad lived upto that tag with his variety and his ability to take wickets across multiple phases of the game.
"You have someone like Ashwin and Jadeja who are obviously good and then we also Noor," CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad said before the game.
"We always wanted someone in our bowling department, who could be aggressive and can come in and take wickets at regular intervals. There were very few in the option pool. So we wanted to get the best (out of) whoever is available and I think Noor is right up there."
As soon as Chennai released Mitchell Santner and Maheesh Theekshana before the mega auction, they were pretty set on Ahmad's unique skillsets.
It's why they made Ahmad an offer Gujarat Titans couldn't match at the mega auction last year. The 2022 champions put down their 'Right To Match' card when the bid was at Rs 5cr. Chennai doubled his price and Gujarat backed out.
Ahmad is a bit like Rashid Khan in that both of them like to bowl after the powerplay. But that's where the similarities end.
Call it the innocence of youth or naivete of the young but the 20-year-old is a more attacking bowler with the caveat that the opposition just don't bother attacking Rashid. The southpaw has the ability to challenge both edges, irrespective of the type of batter he's bowling to. And he can keep producing these kinds of deliveries on demand.
Off the first ball of his second over, he got one to turn sharply. It missed Tilak Varma's bat swing and went for four byes as MS Dhoni's gloves weren't even in the same postcode. Two balls later, He got one to beat Suryakumar Yadav's outside edge. The Indian captain had showed some adventure by stepping down. He was on his bike back to the dressing room after Dhoni followed the trajectory of the ball to effect a smart stumping.
Moments later, he welcomed Robin Minz with the one turning into the right-hander. This was the period when an unsexy but steady Mumbai start had gone from solid to iffy; like a block of jenga one turn away from a pre-advertised death.
At 3/72 after 8.1 overs with two set batters at the crease, they had multiple paths in front of them towards targeting a score in excess of 170. Over the next 40 balls, the trio of Ashwin, Jadeja and Ahmad bowled 14 dots and picked up three wickets.
It's what the hosts hve tended to do at their fortress. Let their spinners hunt prey like a boa constrictor. Cutting off the blood supply. The spinners returned a combined 5/70 off 11 overs (the pacers picked 4/80 in nine).
The visitors, who had their own mystery left-arm spinner in Vignesh Puthur, picked up three wickets to close out a fine game for the tweakers.
