CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings opened their campaign in the 2025 IPL with a four-wicket win over their familiar rivals in the league, Mumbai Indians, here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
Afghanistan spinner Noor Ahmad set the tone for the five-time champions as his 4/18 from four overs helped them to restrict the visitors to 155/9. Later, skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (26-ball 53) along with opener Rachin Ravindra (unbeaten 65 off 45) made sure the hosts overhaul the target.
Ruturaj used his feet well and played the Mumbai seamers as well as their spinners with equitable ease. He was harsh on Mitchell Santner and scored runs at will off the Kiwi bowler. However Ruturaj's square drive off Satnarayana Raju had grace written all over it and was perhaps the shot of the day. He, however, mistimed a drive off Vignesh Puthur which was safely pouched by Will Jacks at long off.
After Ruturaj's dismissal, CSK middle order batters lost focus as they lost three wickets in quick succession. Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda and Sam Curran perished without making much noise. Vignesh Puthur was the most successful bowler for Mumbai in this phase as he accounted for three wickets.
When the equation read 30 runs from four overs, Rachin and Ravindra Jadeja played sensibly to inch the team closer to the target.
Jadeja put his experience to good use and notched up eight valuable runs off a Trent Boult over. A mix-up with only four runs needed for the victory meant Jadeja got run out bringing MS Dhoni to the crease with the crowd going bersek.
Dhoni played two dot balls before Rachin carted Santner over the mid wicket for a huge six off the very first ball of the next over to give CSK a winning start.
Earlier, put in to bat, Mumbai Indians had a disastrous start as they lost Rohit Sharma in the fourth ball of the innings, with the India ODI captain failing to open his account. Khaleel Ahmed tested Rohit by bowling wicket to wicket. Rohit got the first delivery on his pads. He was beaten off the second delivery while the third he defended on the back-foot. The fourth one, Rohit flicked it to Shivam Dube at mid-wicket.
Rohit's dismissal put the visitors on the back-foot. They were under pressure and once again Ahmed showed his prowess by castling Ryan Rickelton. Gaikwad shuffled his bowlers well and his field placements were spot on. Importantly, he was able to maintain pressure on the visitors. He brought in R Ashwin at the right time and the veteran spinner answered his call by by picking the wicket of Will Jacks. The South African failed to read Ashwin's carrom ball and hit it straight to Dube at mid off. A lot depended upon the pair of Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma to do the rescue act. The duo managed to rotate strike, score the odd boundary, adding 51 runs off 36 balls before Yadav got out. The MI stand-in skipper missed the line to be stumped by Dhoni, with Noor picking up his first wicket. Soon Noor accounted for Robin Minz and Tilak. The well settled Tilak failed to read a googly from Noor and trapped right in front, reducing Mumbai to 118/7.
