Chennai Super Kings failed to chase down another score of 180-plus in the Premier League, suffering a telling defeat against Delhi Capitals in Match 17 of the IPL 2025 season in Chennai on Saturday. The Capitals beat CSK by 25 runs to post their 3rd straight win on the bounce. The win sees them occupy the top place in the IPL 2025 standings. On the other hand, CSK suffered a third straight defeat this season from 4 matches and are 8th. Their NRR is -0.891.
The Capitals batted first and posted a score of 183/6 in 20 overs. Jake Fraser-McGurk was dismissed for a 5-ball duck before KL Rahul and Abishek Porel added 54 runs. Porel slammed a valiant 33 from 20 balls. Axar Patel joined hands with Rahul and added 36 runs for the 3rd wicket. With his dismissal, DC got reduced to 90/3 after 9.4 overs. Rahul’s presence helped DC and ensured safety as he shared 56 runs with Sameer Rizvi. Rahul’s vital presence in the middle and the ability to bat till the death overs helped DC get past 180. For CSK, Khaleel Ahmed was superb (2/25).
In response, CSK struggled in the chase of this 184-run target. They were reduced to 41/3 inside the powerplay overs before being reduced to 74/5 in the 11th over. The sixth wicket stand between Vijay Shankar and MS Dhoni was an unbeaten 84 but they were pegged back with some brilliant bowling from DC. They never quite threatened to reach the score posted by the Capitals. For DC, Vipraj Nigam took 2/27, with Mitchell Starc impressing as well (1/27). Kuldeep Yadav (1/30) and Mukesh Kumar (1/36) deserve plaudits.
Here are three heroes and three zeroes in the DC vs CSK clash in Chennai.
Heroes
KL Rahul: Playing his 2nd game for the Capitals, Rahul played his part in this mega contest. He brought his experience into play and thwarted the CSK bowlers. Rahul got an opportunity to open for DC, and he accepted the same with both glee. He found a way to go deeper into the contest and handled the situation well. Rahul looked a bit tired in the end with the extreme heat taking a toll. However, DC won’t complain about being 15-20 runs shy, given they got to a challenging score. Rahul smashed 77 from 51 balls, hitting six fours and three sixes. He registered his 66th T20 fifty (100s: 6) and went past 650 fours (651). He has 7678 runs. Notably, 4775 of his T20 runs have come in the IPL (50s: 38, 100s: 4).
Abishek Porel: The southpaw scored a brisk 33 for DC and played his part. After DC suffered an early blow, Porel helped his side get momentum. He hit Mukesh Choudhary for 19 runs in the 2nd over, hitting three fours and a six. After that, Porel dealt in singles before hitting R Ashwin for a four in the 6th over. He was finally dismissed in the 7th over after the power play as Ravindra Jadeja dismissed him. He slammed 4 fours and a six, with his strike rate being 165.
Vipraj Nigam: Several uncapped Indians are doing well in IPL 2025, and Vipraj Nigam has been one of them. The right-arm leg-spinner took 2/27 from his 4 overs. He bowled 9 dot balls and conceded at 6.75 runs an over. He was hit for just two fours and a six. He was instrumental in getting the wicket of Devon Conway in the 6th over of CSK’s innings. He also got CSK’s Impact Sub Shivam Dube in the 10th over. Both were big wickets for Nigam, who owns three scalps for DC this season.
Zeroes
Ravindra Jadeja: Not a performance that will please fans from all-rounder Jadeja. He was costly with the ball, being limited to just two overs. He clocked 1/19. He was hit for two sixes and conceded at 9.50. And then with the bat, Jadeja walked in when CSK were 65/4. CSK needed Jadeja’s experience and ability to stand tall and get the side moving along, but it was a shortened stay for the southpaw, who scored two runs from three balls. He failed to read a googly from DC’s left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who tossed the ball up and managed to land it on middle and off. Jadeja looked to flick the ball from around off but missed connection and was trapped leg before wicket. CSK were 74/5 with his dismissal.
Ruturaj Gaikwad: The CSK captain who made the cut for the contest with a late fitness test, failed to play a big knock for his side. Gaikwad came in when CSK were 14/1 after 1.5 overs. He managed 5 runs from 4 balls and was dismissed by Starc, leaving his side reeling at 20/2 after 2.3 overs. Gaikwad found the fielder at deep-backward square leg after hitting the back of a length ball. Gaikwad tried to help the ball along the way with a one-legged flick but ended up misplacing the shot and was caught. However, Gaikwad went past 2500 runs for CSK in the IPL with his 2nd run of the contest.
Jake Fraser-McGurk: DC retained the young Australian ahead of the mega auction. However, the promising batter hasn’t delivered the goods. He was out for a five-ball duck in the 1st over, with Khaleel Ahmed getting his wicket. Fraser-McGurk’s scores read 1, 38 and 0 this season. After facing four deliveries on the shorter side, Fraser-McGurk got one on the fuller sid,e and he tried to slug the ball off the front foot with an open stance, as per ESPNcricinfo. After those four dots, he wanted to clear mid-on and was caught out. Ashwin took the catch to end the batter’s struggle.