Live Report - Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings, Ahmedabad

Its four to fine leg!

IT'S THEIR FIFTH IPL TITLE.

IT'S DHONI'S FIFTH IPL TITLE.

THE CSK CAMP CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF JADEJA. HE TURNED AROUND AND RAN STRAIGHT TO THEM AND WAS IMMEDIATELY ENGULFED

At 1.35 am on the third day of a T20 match, Chennai Super Kings emerged as the new IPL champions.

Ravindra Jadeja pierced the silence built by 100,000 people when he hit the final two balls of an incredible, chaotic, unbelievable chase for boundaries. One straight in front. One straight behind him.

An equation of 171 off 15 overs reduced 14 off one. Mohit Sharma made it even tougher. 11 off 3.

Chennai Super Kings hadn’t hit a boundary in 13 balls. They had, however, lost two wickets. One of them was MS Dhoni, for a duck.

That was looking like it might be his last act on a cricket field. He will be 42 soon. He said preparing for the IPL at his age was taking a “heavy toll”. When he came in, Ahmedabad broke the sound barrier. When he left, the crowd was bereft.

Instead, they looked on, having suffered through the rain, braving difficult journeys to and from the ground, as their hero walked up onto the podium and picked up his fifth IPL trophy. In a rare show of emotion, once the winning runs were hit, Dhoni leapt into Jadeja’s arms. That’s how much it means to him.

None of this would’ve been possible though without the impact of Ambati Rayudu. He tweeted that this would be his final IPL match. When he walked out, ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster suggested CSK only had a 35% chance of victory. He lashed Mohit for 6, 4 and 6 and with those three hits, his team became overwhelming favourites. 93%.

Mohit Sharma will bowl

Three picture-perfect off stump yorkers facing the most pressure anyone can be under in this tournament. Then a low-full toss for just one run. The fifth ball goes for six though. Hardik goes up for another chat. They're thinking wide yorker.

Would he ever have imagined this? He was a net bowler last year.

He only came in after Yash Dayal was smashed by Rinku Singh.

Now he has Titans' fate in his hands. Long-on, deep midwicket, deep square leg. Long-off and deep point are back.

The tension's mounting. The crowd is quiet. We're nearing 1.30 am now.

Shami absorbs all that pressure and he is bowling a sublime over. Only 8 off the over

Is that the last time we see him in the IPL?

CSK still need 22 off 12!

Ambati Rayudu, playing his final IPL game, is making his presence felt. In the dugout, Dhoni and Jadeja are sitting together and Dhoni is very animated. Pointing. Non-stop yapping.

Short, sweet, sumptuous innings from Rayudu. All of the players in the CSK dug out pat him on the back as he returns.

When he came to the crease, CSK had only 35% chance of winning. Three hits off his blade and they have a 93% chance of victory. AND IN COMES MS DHONI!

Dube does spin in when they toss the ball up. Or when they go into the wicket, but those just stand up.

Rashid though gets skid. And his legbreaks zip through lower than the batter expects.

That's what's happening here. Dube is setting up on the back foot to pull him. But the skid and the low bounce is not letting him access his power.

Except the last two balls are tossed up. Oh Rashid, you were doing so well. He's gone for 44 in his three overs.

In comes Rayudu.

The equation is 53 off 24.

Dube is stuck on a run a ball 9, even though seven of them were from spinners.

Titans, meanwhile, are trusting Mohit Sharma to close this out. He was a net bowler last season. Now he could win them the title. And he's already made a strong impression. Takes out Ajinkya Rahane who was hitting the ball really sweetly. Even the one he got out, he held his shape, which means he saw the leg cutter, and he made good connection, but it still didn't matter. Deep point actually had to come in to take the catch. This is outstanding bowling. Just perfect execution.

The 18-year old finishes his spell and it's potentially match-winning. 3-0-17-2. He's given away ZERO boundaries. And taken two wickets.

The fact he hasn't gone for a lot of runs means Titans could happily hold Rashid back. Rashid still has 12 balls left to influence this game. That's HUUUUUUUUUGE for Titans.

The umpires are changing the ball at 9.1. The outfield has been hit by a lot of rain. So every time the ball skids on the grass, it might get some scuff on it

CSK have pushed an anchor batter in when they need more than two runs a ball. But he hits his second ball for six. His fourth ball flies out of the ground as well. Ram-rod straight over the bowler too. He has a strike rate of 237 against pace this season.

The two Afghanistan spinners combine to take out Ruturaj Gaikwad.

CSK have lost one of their best batters, one of their best spin-hitters, caught at point miscuing a slog sweep.

They've sent out another one though. Shivam Dube walks out with CSK needing 97 off 51. Forecaster says they only have a 26% chance of getting there.

Titans are saving both of Rashid's overs for the end, it looks like. That plan only works if Noor (2-0-12-2) and LIttle bowl well and so far they're doing the job. Good stuff!

Josh Little is missing a Test at Lord's to play this game. And he's doing ever so well. Taking all the pace off... except the last ball is launched into the crowd behind midwicket.

For a little bit, it looked like the CSK batters were trying to force the pace. Their on the up drives looked ungainly. Conway and Ruturaj don't often look ungainly.

But that last ball, Conway seemed to set himself up for the slower ball. He held his shape well and after that it was just a matter of the bat coming down in a clean swing. CSK still need two runs a ball for 54 balls

We have a full game now. Officially. Even if rain stops things, we will have a winner at the end of the night. The DLS par at the end of six overs is 58 for 0. CSK are 72 for 0.

Along with the lifting of the fielding restrictions.

Noor though did his part, never allowing the batter to line him up, even if it meant bowling a few down leg. He kept changing his pace. He went into the pitch. He went wide yorker. He did beautifully to prevent the batter from getting under the ball.

TItans have responded to those boundaries off the quicks by bringing in their main threat. Rashid Khan. Even his leggies are just skidding onto the bat.

This is why CSK didn't mess with their batting order. They know their threat comes from Conway and Ruturaj, who has hit the most beautiful inside out side off Rashid. CSK are 52 for 0 in four overs of the powerplay

Hardik in the second over. Two boundaries. 14 runs

Shami in the third over. Two boundaries. 11 runs.

That first over took the best part of two hours and 20 minutes to complete.

Super Kings haven't fiddled with their batting order just yet. It will be Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway walking out to a chase that will require them to score at two runs a ball right from the start. One over of Rashid Khan might put that up at 15-plus. This is going to be very very hard for the four-time champions. There are only 21 balls of powerplay left. After that the field spreads. Five men on the boundary.

That's the result of a meeting between the two umpires, the match referee, CSK coach Fleming, Titans captain Hardik and Titans coach Nehra. They were all huddled over a piece of paper, which may or may not have had DLS details.

Visuals are showing the umpires walking up to the groundstaff as they keep working on one of the pitches in the square - that's the one that's causing all the problems. It's not the pitch in use tonight but it got flooded when the rain hit. Hardik has walked across it, putting all his weight on it. The roller is being put to it. Going up and down, trying to get it nice and solid. Nehra isn't best pleased though. He doesn't think the conditions are fit for play. Remember, if this game doesn't get underway, if it becomes a no-result, Titans win the title thanks to their finishing higher on the points table in the league stage.

It's 11pm now, more than an hour since the players left the field. The weather has cleared. Absolutely no rain. And the shower didn't last long either. Just 20 minutes or so. The Titans are on the field, with Hardik Pandya talking to his bowlers, talking to his senior players, being extremely active out there.

Stop-start games are never fun. Especially for batters. Ruturaj Gaikwad for example performs best when he gathers speed like a rock rolling down a mountain. If he has to suddenly stop - as he has had to now - and start again, how will that affect his game?

CSK will have an advantage if the chase is curtailed from its full quota of 20 overs, simply because they'll have more wickets to take on fewer balls.

There will be an inspection of the ground at 10.45pm. The major point of concern is one of the pitches in the square. It's not the pitch in use tonight. But its taken a lot of water the groundstaff are trying to sponge it off so that players don't get injured running/diving there

Three balls into the chase, it's started to rain in Ahmedabad.

The groundstaff get busy.

The players go off.

It is the highest score in an IPL final. They got it by smashing 71 runs in the last five overs. Our forecaster says Titans are 89.34% favourites to win it from here.

And that's not without cause. Only once have they let a team score more than 200 in the chase. And that needed Rinku Singh to go 6, 6, 6, 6, 6.

It's the last over.

Very few have been able to hit Pathirana like this.

Titans have soared past 200. This is their game now.

Sudharsan falls for 96 off 47 with eight fours and six sixes. He was 10 off 12 with no boundaries.

Pathirana does well, going around the wicket and angling it across the right-handers, some off-pace, some in the blockhole. Being unpredictable is all you can do in the death and he's done well. It's testament to that that he hasn't conceded a boundary in the 18th over.

Dhoni has bowled all his spinners out in the 15th over. He saw spin getting some grip just after the powerplay and he went all in on it.

Now there's no grip. So maybe a spinner wouldn't be a wicket-taking option. But they might still have kept the runs down by taking pace off the ball.

Now all Dhoni has are overs from Pathirana and Deshpande. They are CSK's designated death bowlers. Can they do what they were picked to? It's all up against them. Titans know its all pace. Titans are setting up to smash pace.

He gets there in 33 balls with two fours and three sixes.

He was 6 off 9 at one point. Then 10 off 12 and still no boundaries.

Then all of a sudden...

Each of the boundaries in the overs between 15 and 17 were off Sudharsan's bat.

The 21-year old Tamil Nadu boy is taking it to their IPL team.

After those two dots - both shots hit hard but straight to the fielder - Hardik told Sudharsan to stay calm. You got this, he seemed to say, nodding his head and showing a thumbs up.

Next three balls, Sudharsan smacks two big sixes.

This is Hardik the captain doing his thing. And this is the men under his charge standing up for him. I wrote about it earlier in the tournament.

The grip and turn the spinners got right after the powerplay, between overs 7 and 10, seems to have faded a bit.

10, 13 and 15. Those are the runs Titans took off the 11th, 12th and 13th overs to get this game back in their favour.

And they did that after losing their biggest batter. Shubman Gill's wicket thanks to MS Dhoni's skills is the kind of thing that people in cricket might see as a sign. The champion team waking up from their slumber. Well, none of that.

Titans have kept pace - and even though they've lost Saha now for 54 - they look well placed to score 200. And 200 on this pitch may be enough. Hardik Pandya is in now. He wallops spin.

Saha has brought up a 36-ball fifty, with five fours and a six.

Titans are back pushing 10 runs an over again. They're 124 for 1 in 13 overs.

With Hardik and Miller and Rashid and Tewatia still waiting.

The groundstaff are running around gathering the covers

Hardik's heart told him to bat first tonight. And his heart appears to be very wise.

Five overs of spin after the powerplay produced just 34 runs and a wicket.

The moment pacer was brought back in - even one of the quality of Matheesha Pathirana - the boundaries began to flow.

This isn't a straightforward pitch. It looks slow. It has offered turn. Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed are going be really really hard to face later on.

Something tells me if Titans can get to 160-170, they might win this

Saha slows down after the powerplay. His whole T20 game is geared towards making the most of the field restrictions.

Given that, should Titans have sent someone like Vijay Shankar up the order instead of Sai Sudharsan who has a strike rate in the 120s.

This is Jadeja in the seventh over

Theekshana in the eighth over

And Jadeja again in the ninth

The slowness of the pitch and the grip the spinners are getting will be good news for Gujarat Titans actually. If its like this now, imagine how it will be in the second innings after the wear and tear.

On a night when his entire team has been sucking in the field, the captain steps up to save them.

He watched them drop Gill on 2.

He watched them drop Saha on 21.

He watched his best man, Ravindra Jadeja, miss a run-out because he didn't collect a throw at the bowler's end

Through all this, he's stayed perfectly stoic. Maybe because he knew when the chance comes to him, he needed to be ready. He needed to be switched on.

The chance comes in the 7th over. Ravindra Jadeja gets lovely turn. One of his tossed up balls draw Gill forward, tempting him into a drive on the up.

But it's not there. Jadeja gets both dip and grip. Gill is left wafting at thin air and behind the stumps is the boss.

Thala changes the game.

Super Kings bring on their mystery spinner to try and exert some control. But this is what happens.

Poor fielding costs the team again, because one of those fours should have been a dot. Devon Conway at point let one through on his left.

Gill is an artist at manipulating the field. He came down and launched Theekshana over cover. That told him the bowler would pull his length back and refuse him room outside off. He actually preyed on the adjustment; on an adjustment meant to stop him and instead it resulted in another boundary thanks to his ingenuity.

He expected the change in line and length and he was ready with a sweep to fine leg. Gill finishes the powerplay with seven fours in 17 balls.

CSK are taking pace off the ball as often as they could. They've also gone away from pitching it up once the swing vanished. It's all into the wicket and no pace.

They're asking GT's batters to hold their shape if they want to get boundaries, and Gill is up to the task. He's got four fours in his first 13 balls.

Titans were 8 for 0 in two overs.

CSK found swing in the first over. They found a mis-hit from Gill in the second over.

It was a result of them bowling tight lines on middle and off stump.

But once they were unable to take the chance they created, things reverted to the mean.

Gill began to find his touch. Ahmedabad is showing itself to be a batting paradise. GT 38 for 0 in four overs

Ravi Shastri makes a lovely point about the conditions. He thinks the pitch is sliiiiightly slow and he backs the assessment by showing how CSK have most of their fielders in front of square. Even point is "on the line", he says.

Square leg was straighter too. Dhoni has placed him perfectly. The flick goes straight to Chahar. Low. But straight. Went in. Popped out.

Gill was dropped on 30 in Qualifier 2. He made 129. Dhoni has yanked Chahar out now. He isn't at square leg anymore.

Chahar comes on to bowl after the drop and gets whacked by Saha.

All eyes are on one man. No not that man. The other man. Shubman Gill. He had 41 men ahead of him on the six hitters list last season. This time it's only one. He is one century away from the most in an IPL season, and 100-odd runs away from the highest aggregate in an IPL season. He looks unstoppable.

MS Dhoni has won the toss and he has decided to bowl, with the rain forecast in mind. He praises the Ahmedabad pitch for behaving very well and he is hoping that it stays the same through the game. He also praises the crowd for coming back after suffering last night. He makes a mention of how happy he is that the final is a full 20 over game, after all the struggle of going through the full tournament. Same team

Hardik says he would have bowled too -- but his heart told him batting first won't be that bad. Its a flat track. Same team

Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Hardik Pandya (capt), 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 David Miller, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Noor Ahmed, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Mohammed Shami, 12 Josh Little (Likely Impact Sub)

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Ambati Rayudu, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Tushar Deshpande, 10 Maheesh Theekshana, 11 Matheesha Pathirana, 12 Shivam Dube (Likely Impact Sub)

Each of the three playoff matches have ended with the side batting first winning.

That's what they always say about knockout matches. Runs on the board becomes invaluable.

But Ahmedabad has shown itself to be a very friendly ground for batters. Over 30% of all the runs scored here have come in sixes.

Scoreboard pressure comes into play when you can't defuse it by hitting sixes. That won't be a problem at this ground. It may be the biggest in the world in terms of capacity but the boundaries really aren't all that big.

Mumbai opted to chase in their playoff at Motera and were done by one man. They were done by a freak innings. It still feels like the right call - chasing here - but what will CSK and GT do? What will Dhoni and Hardik do?

The crowd is pouring in. There were 75,655 people at hand to see the home side progress into the final three days ago. That figure is bound to be eclipsed here. Ahmedabad seats over 100,000. There is a strong chance every one of those seats will be taken.

According to from Navdeep Dahiya, who was impressively accurate with his weather forecast last night, "rain (if any) is indicated between 8 - 10pm. Should be a short spell"

MS Dhoni, meanwhile, will join Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah. Ambati Rayudu (who is retiring at the end of this game), Kieron Pollard, Aditya Tare and of course Hardik on five IPL titles if he wins

You can follow the ball-by-ball commentary in Hindi and in Tamil too.

So what will it be today? The forecast is MUCH better. The sky is much clearer. And the chance of a full game - one that starts on time even - is much higher. Let's do this, then. Properly.

The calendar says its the 29th day of the fifth month of the year 2023. We might come to know it later as the day he could finally rest.

None of us want it. He might even have taken notice of it. The Chennai Super Kings have gone all over the country and their yellow has taken over the grounds. Eden. Chinnaswamy. Even here in Ahmedabad at the start of all this. And, of course, his beloved Chennai

"To be frank, it is taking a heavy toll," MS Dhoni said the other night when asked if he might keep playing on for Chennai Super Kings. As ever, he kept us all guessing. If he goes all the way tonight, and wins himself a fifth IPL trophy, will it stoke his desire to stay, or will it persuade him to leave?

And if he does walk away, he will do so with the comfort of having given this sport and his teams his all. Even in defeat, if that happens tonight, he might look on with pride because the man who will ascend the steps to take the trophy is one that he helped make.

Hardik Pandya is every bit the MS Dhoni of this generation. Look at what leading the Gujarat Titans means to him in that video up there. Master and protege go head to head tonight for the second biggest prize in the cricket world. Or has the IPL trophy become the biggest? It gets the most eyeballs.

The IPL 2023 final between defending champions Gujarat Titans and four-time champions Chennai Super Kings has been pushed into its reserve day, which is tomorrow, by rain.

At around the time everybody was gearing up for the toss, the weather turned sour.

There was, maybe, a 10-minute window around 9pm when the endless rain cleared up and there was belief that a full game might take place.

But, even as hope was taking form, the storm came back and stayed through the night. The IPL playing conditions allow the final the luxury of a reserve day - tomorrow - and since no play took place today we will have a full game on Monday.

The forecast tomorrow includes some rain as well, but its in the hours leading into the game. The skies are supposed to clear up by 6pm. Then again, there wasn't supposed to be any rain this evening either.

Here are the umpires Nitin Menon and Rod Tucker. They say 11pm is the point of no return.

They are, currently, still trying to get a game going tonight. But the rain hasn't stopped. It's been going on for an hour and a bit.

What's in store is a five-over final. Imagine that. A tournament that's gone on for well over two months and included 70-plus matches gets decided in the time it takes to finish dinner.

A five-over game has to start by 12.06am. For that, the rain has to clear by around 11pm. The groundstaff need 60 minutes or so to get the ground fit for play.

It's past 9.35 pm now. And according to the IPL's own playing conditions, we have started losing overs.

If the game starts tonight, it won't be a full game.

And if it stops midway after starting, forcing the reserve day in, we still won't get a full game.

Play will restart tomorrow from where it stopped today and it will remain a reduced affair

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More good news.

Hardik Pandya, the Titans captain, is in the middle taking a look at the pitch, along with his head coach Ashish Nehra and T20 veteran Matthew Wade.

Both teams are now out on the field.

A light roller is being used on the pitch. The stumps have been stuck in place.

... to HUUUUGE cheers from the fans.

We're still within the time allowed for a full game to take place.

Plenty of cheer among the fans braving the elements as they see the downpour fading. It's not completely gone but it's come down to the extent that they're all venturing back into the open-air seats. And about five minutes later they are sent scurrying back as the storm hits back with a vengeance.

It looks highly likely now that this game will be reduced from its full quota of 20 overs. In which case, this is what the IPL playing conditions state

• For innings of rescheduled length of 10 or more over overs, no bowler may bowl more than one-fifth of the total overs allowed. Where the total overs is not divisible by 5, one additional over shall be allowed to the maximum number per bowler necessary to make up the balance.

• For innings of rescheduled length of less than 10 overs, no bowler may bowl more than two overs. Thus in a 5 over innings, it would be possible for 2 bowlers to each bowl 2 overs and a third bowler to bowl 1 over.

Fits with this assessment from a weather expert named Navdeep Dahiya

The fans at the ground have rushed back to shelter.

It's not gone off completely but it is much better now than it was before.

Fans who had taken shelter are now returning to the open air seats in Ahmedabad.

Puddles that had formed on the outfield are almost all gone.

There's just one at the inner ring. The drainage there is pretty good.

The super sopper is out there, clearing most of the muck around the edge of the covers.

India and Australia will be playing the World Test Championship final on June 7. Both teams have announced their squads.

And here's Australia, who their former captain and expert commentator Ian Chappell, says will go into the match as favourites because of a) the seam-friendly conditions at the Oval and b) the injuries to Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant.

While we wait for the game to start, why not enjoy curl up with a good feature story or two.

This is the story of the CSK empire, brought to you by Nagraj Gollapudi

This is the story of an empire currently being built at Gujarat Titans, brought to you by Shashank Kishore.

We also have a gallery put together by Srinidhi Ramanujam on CSK's various finals. Check out young Dhoni in the first pic!

When the game does start - and trust me it will, Ahmedabad has excellent drainage, Qualifier 2 got under way 35 minutes after a storm not unlike this - all eyes will be on one man. No not that man. The other man. Shubman Gill. He had 41 men ahead of him on the six hitters list last season. This time it's only one. He is one century away from the most in an IPL season, and 100-odd runs away from the highest aggregate in an IPL season. He looks unstoppable.

Given the rain has come and the ground is all slick, both CSK and GT might give greater thought to batting first. Thats when the ball will have the most chance of being wet and when the ball is wet the bowlers are in trouble. They will struggle to grip it, which will hamper their ability to land it where they want, which will increase their chances of being hit to all parts. Ahmedabad is a very very sixer friendly ground.

But if the forecast is for more rain through the night, then it is likely they're just gonna chase and be done with it.

The IPL tends to be a bit immune to the elements. The second qualifier was hit by rain and we still got a full game. It is unlikely to be very different tonight. And even if it is, there is a reserve day for the final tomorrow. This is the showpiece event of the Indian cricket calendar. A little tantrum from a force of nature isn't going to disrupt it.

The crowd is pouring in. There were 75,655 people at hand to see the home side progress into the final two days ago. That figure is bound to be eclipsed here. Ahmedabad seats over 100,000. There is a strong chance every one of those seats will be taken. Except it has started to RAIN. Boo!

MS Dhoni, meanwhile, will join Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah. Ambati Rayudu (who is retiring at the end of this game), Kieron Pollard, Aditya Tare and of course Hardik on five IPL titles if he wins

You can follow the ball-by-ball commentary in Hindi and in Tamil too.