Cricket Highlights, 30 May: IPL 2023 (Final) – Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans

Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans (Final) – Highlights

The rain-hit IPL 2023 final on Monday (May 29) swung like a pendulum. Sometimes Gujarat Titans (GT), and sometimes Chennai Super Kings (CSK) seemed to have control over the match. CSK’s mark was 10 runs in the last two balls. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja did the almost impossible thing for his team securing that goal. 

Jadeja led Chennai Super Kings to a dramatic 5-wicket victory in the D/L method with hit a six and four in the last two balls at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. CSK ended Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans’ dream of a second consecutive title. Dhoni’s team won the title for the fifth time in the IPL. Only Mumbai Indians (MI) have a record of 5 titles equal to them.

Sunday (May 28) was the scheduled day for the final match. But due to rain, the toss could not be done that day. As a result, the match rolled on the reserve day. On that reserve day too, after one innings, rain struck. But for CSK, the rain has been a blessing rather than a curse. Because, if this match had been abandoned, GT would have been the champion due to having more points in the group stage.  

But as the rain came, it turned out to be quite an advantage for MS Dhoni’s team. After losing the toss and batting first, the defending champion GT got the record-ever capital of 214 runs in an IPL final. Whereas it would have been very difficult for CSK to reach the goal of victory if the match was played for the full 20 overs. 

But due to rain, the overs were reduced. As a result, the target in front of CSK stood at 171 runs in 15 overs in the D/L method. Two openers Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad gave the Super Kings a good start coming down to chase the target. 52 runs came in 4 overs of the power play. Even at the end of the power play, their run speed did not decrease. In 6 overs, CSK’s score stood at 72 runs without a wicket.  

In the seventh over, Noor Ahmad gave GT the first breakthrough by sending back Ruturaj (26 from 16 balls) to the dressing room. The left-arm spinner returned another opener Conway too in the same over. With 4 fours and 2 sixes, this Kiwi batsman returned with a catch in the hands of Mohit Sharma, scoring 47 runs off 25 balls. CSK lost two wickets in the same over and fell under a bit of pressure.  

However, Ajinkya Rahane continued to march towards victory with Shivam Dube for the third wicket. Rahane was indicating a counter fight by hitting two sixes in Joshua Little’s 8th over. CSK needed 59 runs in the last 5 overs to win. In such a situation, Rahane was dismissed after being caught in the 11th over. With an even count of 2 fours and sixes, he returned to the pavilion with 27 runs off 13 balls, this made the victory a bit more difficult for the team.  

Dube took on the challenge of chasing 54 runs in the last 4 overs with Ambati Rayudu. Dube brought the match in their favor by picking up 15 runs with 2 sixes in the 12th over off Rashid Khan. A wicketless Rashid Khan with 44 runs in 3 overs disappointed the fans of GT. CSK’s target of victory stood at 39 runs off the last 18 balls. 

In the 13th over, Rayudu made the match easy for CSK by picking up 16 runs off the first three balls of Mohit Sharma, but he was dismissed in the next ball. Rayudu scored 19 runs off 8 balls in his last IPL innings. GT returned to the match when pacer Mohit took the wicket of skipper Dhoni (0) in the very next ball. But with Dube and Jadeja at the crease, CSK’s chances of victory were not over.  

The equation was to get 21 runs from 12 balls – In this situation, pacer Mohammed Shami came to bowl the 14th over to block CSK from snatching away the victory. As he gave away 8 runs, Super Kings needed 13 runs to win in the last over.

In the last over, Mohit conceded only 3 runs off the first 4 balls, and the match tilted toward GT. From there started Jadeja’s impossible feat. He hit a six-over long-on on the fifth ball. As a result, 4 runs were required from the last ball. At that time, Dhoni and the rest of the team’s newcomers were sitting in the dugout with suppressed excitement.

In the end, Jadeja hit a low full toss delivery to short fine leg for a four and took the team to the port of victory. CSK won their fifth home title in the drama of the last over. 

Earlier, CSK skipper Dhoni won the toss and sent GT to bat first. Deepak Chahar dropped an easy catch of Shubman Gill at square leg off Tushar Deshpande in the second over. Gill became a matter of worry for the CSK camp after getting a life. He and Wriddhiman Saha gave GT a flying start in the power play. They scored 62 runs in 6 overs.  

Gill was on his way to a half-century. However, he had to return due to being stumped by Dhoni off Ravindra Jadeja’s ball. This opener scored 39 runs off 20 balls in 7 boundaries. Wriddhiman made a partnership of 64 runs off 42 balls with Sai Sudharsan for the second wicket. The wicketkeeper batter, who completed his fifty off 36 balls, returned after falling victim to Deepak. His innings of 54 runs off 39 balls had 5 fours and 1 six.  

Then Sudharsan’s stormy batting began. He scored fifty off 33 balls. In the 17th over, the batsman picked up 21 runs by hitting Tushar Deshpande for 3 fours and 1 six. Sudharsan came very close to a century by hitting Matheesha Pathirana for two consecutive sixes in the last over. But he was out being lbw in the very next ball. Sudharsan scored 96 runs off 47 balls with 8 fours and 6 sixes. Captain Hardik ended up unbeaten with 21 runs off 12 balls. 

Shubman Gill was presented with the Orange Cap and Player of the Series award for scoring the highest runs of the tournament. Apart from this, pacer Mohammed Shami got a purple cap for taking maximum wickets this season. On the other hand, CSK opener Devon Conway was selected as the player of the match for playing a great innings in the final of this edition of IPL.

Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans Scoreboard

Gujarat Titans – 214/4 (20.0)

Chennai Super Kings – 171/5 (15.0)

Result – Chennai Super Kings won by 5 wickets (D/L method)

Player of the match – Devon Conway

Player of the series – Shubman Gill

  Devon Conway

Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans Playing XIs