Five championships in 14 seasons for CSK, led by the legendary MS Dhoni at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on Monday, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated Gujarat Titans (GT) by five wickets to win their fifth consecutive IPL championship. 

At the end of this game, MS Dhoni was asked a very important question of whether he’ll continue to play in IPL or not, to which he graciously replied, “It’ll be a gift from me,” he told the sources. The legendary cricket player has set all eyes on him in the last match when he decided to not rule out the possibility of him being part of next IPL season. 

About the match 

Apart from great captaincy throughout the match, Ravindra Jadeja’s last-ball four off of Mohit Sharma’s final pitch sealed a historic victory for Chennai. Heavy weather forced the suspension of the summit match, and Chennai was given a revised target of 171 in 15 overs; this included 4 powerplay overs and a bowler limit of 3 overs, with both timeouts remaining in effect.

Conway and Ruturaj, the opening pair for CSK, attacked GT’s star-studded bowling lineup with ruthless abandon. By dismissing both of CSK’s openers in the same over, Noor Ahmad assisted GT in turning things around. The next guy in, Ajinkya Rahane, blasted some elegant fours and sixes to increase the run pace. In the final Rashid Khan over, Rahane’s partner Dube, who had originally struggled, ultimately got his footing and smacked Rahane for two sixes. In the 13th over, Rayudu’s late flourish—two sixes and a four—got CSK back into the match. Rayudu was struck out, while Dhoni was out after the first pitch. Everything came down to CSK needing 13 runs off of the final 6 balls.

MS Dhoni called Gujarat Titans to bat first earlier in Ahmedabad after choosing to toss. Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha, the home team’s openers, gave them a strong start, giving them the upper hand and momentum from the very beginning of their innings. Shubman Gill was dropped by Chahar on 2, literally, a dolly. Following that, Gill continued to smash some impressive fours and sixes, assisting GT in scoring 30 runs off the third and fourth overs combined. 

Saha went on to make a fifty, but it was uncapped Indian batter Sai Sudharsan’s batting heroics that proved to be the real game-changer as the missed run-out opportunity proved to be too costly for CSK. Sai continued to score boundaries no matter whatever bowler he was up against. Sadly, he failed to score a well-deserved hundred but did remarkably well.

In an IPL final, chasing down the 215-run total was always a monumental challenge for CSK. The highest IPL final total to date was set by GT for CSK in the first innings. The highest total ever chased in an IPL Final was 200 by KKR against Punjab in 2014.