KKR won the match by eight wickets and 59 balls remaining.
Overview
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clashed in Match 25 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Friday, April 11. KKR won the toss and elected to bowl first.
CSK started slowly and suffered the first blow in the form of Devon Conway (12 off 11) who was out leg before to Moeen Ali. Soon, his compatriot Rachin Ravindra (4 off 9) had to go back to the pavilion courtesy Harshit Rana. A 43-run partnership blossomed between Vijay Shankar (29 off 21) and Rahul Tripathi (16 off 22) but it was quite slow (33 balls). With Vijay Shankar’s wicket, the big trouble for CSK began in all earnest. The batters to follow could not do much except for Shivam Dube who scored 31* off 29. CSK had a terrible outing with the bat as they could score 103/9 off 20 overs.
KKR had a quick start to the chase. Openers Quinton de Kock (23 off 16) and Sunil Narine (44 off 18) went about their business at a good pace. Even the batters to follow – Ajinkya Rahane (20 off 17) and Rinku Singh (15 off 12) played sensibly to see their team home by eight wickets and 9.5 overs remaining.
Also read: IPL 2025: Match 27, SRH vs PBKS Match Prediction
Talking Points
1. Lack of boundaries hurt CSK
The home team began the innings sedately and viewers might have thought they would pick up pace soon. However, the expectation remained unfulfilled as the innings never got going. The openers could not find boundaries easily, and if they didn’t, one would have probably thought the middle order would. But they didn’t too.
Though Tripathi and Shankar formed a good partnership they were not quick enough and hence the pressure increased with every passing over. Credit does go to the KKR bowlers for understanding the conditions and bowling as per the situation and the opposition just could not come out of the quicksand.
2. Dhoni comes at no. 9, but fails
After becoming the CSK captain once again, there was palpable excitement among the CSK fans and great expectation from Dhoni to turn things around. However, he could not succeed tonight even when it comes to batting . To begin with, he came out at no. 9 which might be debated as probably CSK needed an experienced hand to handle the situation earlier.
On top of that, he looked like he would take a bit of time, understandably, to get going as there were many overs left. But, unfortunately for him, he was LBW. The decision, however, may be debated as there was a murmur on the snicko when the ball passed the bat but the third umpire adjudicated in favour of the bowling team. The night did not belong to CSK and Dhoni.
3. KKR show the pitch had no demons as such
KKR, buoyed by a small target of 104, decided to attack right from the start. De Kock and Narine got going and formed a 46-run partnership in 26 balls. After De Kock’s departure, Narine kept going as he smashed five sixes and two fours in a 44-run knock.
Rahane and Rinku played with a cool head thereafter and saw the team home quickly, providing themselves a thumping win and a huge boost to the NRR. They showed CSK and the world that the pitch was not that bad to bat on.
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