Chennai Super Kings suffered their fourth successive loss in IPL 2025, going down by 18 runs against Punjab Kings at Mullanpur on Tuesday.
An 89-run partnership between Devon Conway and Shivam Dube only succeeded in delaying the inevitable.
Lockie Ferguson broke the stand, castling Dube for 42 in 27 balls. That brought in MS Dhoni to the crease at No. 5.
Dhoni briefly brought back memories of his heyday, hitting Ferguson for successive sixes in the 18th over.
In between those sixes, Conway had retired out after making 69 in 49 balls, with Ravindra Jadeja replacing him in the middle.
In the penultimate over by Arshdeep Singh, Dhoni hammered a four and six off consecutive balls. The over went for 15, leaving CSK needing 28 off the last over by Yash Thakur.
The first ball of the final over was a full toss down leg side, which Dhoni hit straight into the hands of Yuzvendra Chahal at short fine leg. He'd done his best, making 27 in 12 balls. The rest of the over was an anti-climax though CSK did manage to cross the 200 mark, finishing at 201/5.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings suffered a double blow in their bid to chase down the target of 220 set by Punjab Kings.
After an opening stand of 61, Rachin Ravindra was stumped off Glenn Maxwell for 36 off 23 balls.
One run later, skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed by Lockie Ferguson.
In the first half of the game, opener Priyansh Arya smashed a century off just 39 balls as Punjab Kings amassed 219/6.
That looked unlikely after they lost half the side for 85. But Arya then struck the fourth fastest hundred in IPL history after Chris Gayle (30 balls), Yusuf Pathan (37 balls) and David Miller (38 balls). Travis Head has also hit a century in 39 balls in the IPL.
The 24-year-old reached his ton by hitting 6, 6, 6 and 4 off successive deliveries by Matheesha Pathirana.
Arya finally fell to Noor Ahmad for 103 in 42 balls, which included seven fours and nine sixes.
When he fell, Punjab were 154/6 in the 14th over. Shashank Singh and Marco Jansen then put on an unbroken stand of 65 in just 38 balls.
Shashank remained unbeaten on 52 in 36 balls while Jansen made 34 in 19 balls.
Earlier, R Ashwin, who was hit for 21 in his first over, came back strongly to remove Nehal Wadhera and Glenn Maxwell in his next over, which went for just two. That left Punjab Kings at 83/5 after eight overs and in danger of not being able to bat out their full quota.
But Arya and Shashank Singh would then add 71 runs for the sixth wicket.
After Punjab elected to bat, Prabhsimran Singh was bowled by Mukesh Chaudhary for a duck.
Khaleel Ahmed then castled skipper Shreyas Iyer for nine to leave the hosts at 32/2. Khaleel would strike again to remove Marcus Stoinis for four.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) won the toss and opted to bat against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their IPL 2025 match at Mullanpur.
PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer said that in the last match the team delayed in executing its plan and that the team had learnt a lot from that loss.
CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said that they were looking to bat first.
CSK will be eager to get back to winning ways and take home the vital two points. CSK are currently near the bottom of the table after suffering three consecutive losses.
With rumours of potential retirement, the CSK veteran MS Dhoni will also be under pressure to deliver as he was not able to deliver for his team
Coming off a fresh defeat at home against Rajasthan Royals, The Shreyas Iyer- led side will also be looking to clinch their first home win of the season.
Playing XI
Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Chennai Super Kings: Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana
Impact players
PBKS: Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Praveen Dubey, Azmatullah Omarzai, Vyshak Vijaykumar
CSK: Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, Anshul Kambo