CHENNAI: ERM. Hmmm. Oh. Meh.
These may be the only words or expressions to accurately capture the three hours inside the MA Chidambaram Stadium from 7.30 PM.
At its best, it's a cauldron of colour, noise and joy. An emotion.
On Friday night, it was a lifeless circular wall for large parts of Chennai Super Kings' latest anaemic offering dressed in the garb of a T20 match.
What do you prefer? An hour without a boundary? Got you covered. Allowing Moeen Ali to bowl a wicket-maiden in the powerplay? Yep, done. Crashing to their lowest ever total at Chepauk? Tick. Playing out 61 dots -- more than half the innings -- across a T20 innings? Yes.
Just like Manchester United of late, this version of CSK keeps creating unwanted records all over the place. They have now lost five matches in a row in a single season for the first time ever. This is also the first time they have lost three back-to-back matches at their beloved home.
There was a time when teams would get psyched by the mere thought of playing in or against Chennai, such was the respect they commanded. These days? It's approaching 'lads, it's Chennai' territory.
When Kolkata Knight Riders, the IPL holders, arrived, they came with their own set of problems. Those problems evaporated the moment they inserted the hosts on a slow, spinning deck (why the hosts opted for a surface such as this against the guile of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy showed their cluttered thinking at this point).
The Men In Yellow have struggled for momentum in the powerplay all season. That theme continued as they played out 20 dots in the powerplay. There were four boundaries, zero sixes, two wickets and 20 dots. Even as teams have tried to maximise the powerplay, Chennai have, if anything, doubled down on this archaic form of batting. Sure, they have liked to take their time before but outdated form of playing the game has left them in a big hole.
Watching on, it felt like the last session on Day Five of a meandering Test. Strangely enough, large pockets of the crowd also stopped their periodic chanting of 'CSK, CSK, CSK'. At one point of time during the first innings, it felt like being in a large open-air library thanks to the silence.
One cannot even blame the paying public as the likes of Rahul Tripathi lived a tortured existence before his 22-ball 16 came to an end at the hands of Narine. He failed to put away even the half-trackers as all confidence seemed to have gone from his game.
The only time Chepauk resembled Chepauk was when MS Dhoni, captaining the franchise for the first time since the 2023 final, walked out to bat. The whistles were back and there were the now customary celebrations as insta-worthy pictures were being clicked. Those celebrations soon died as Dhoni, who walked out when the score read 7/72 after 14.2 overs, soon exited. Him against spin is not a good match-up for the wicket-keeper and Narine got one to turn slightly. It just about evaded the inside edge and found him leg before.
As soon as DRS returned the 'out' verdict, something else happened. Masses started heading for the exit gates. The CSK faithful had seen enough. This wasn't the fanbase turning against their own club but a fanbase throwing in the towel. There are only three home matches remaining. Continue in this vein and there could be a very real danger of the faithful becoming a bit bored. The five-time champions had an identity of being a winning machine, especially at home.
Now, this team seems devoid of identity, creativity and energy.
There are eight games to go but the denouement to Friday's match told its own story. Both sides going through the motion. Kolkata, after a flurry of fours and sixes, enjoying as they gradually devour their prey. Death by a 1000 cuts.
For Chennai? After an auction where they allowed sentiment and heart, this is likely to be a season of great pain and a lot of learning.