Live Report - Chahal, Prabhsimran and Shreyas knock CSK out of playoffs race

There's one more dot ball, with Marco Jansen stabbing straight to backward point, before PBKS finally win it... with an inside-edge past the stumps and down to the fine leg boundary. Apt way for a harebrained game to end. With that, CSK are officially out of the playoffs race.

Khaleel Ahmed begins the final over with PBKS needing two runs. He bowls a slower-ball bouncer that Suryansh Shedge misses. He reviews for wide, but the on-field decision stays. Then Khaleel bowls a leg-side wide. Scores level.

Then Khaleel bowls another slower short ball, and Shedge pulls and picks out deep midwicket. What is even happening!

With PBKS needing three off nine balls, Shreyas looks to finish it off in one hit, looking to whip Pathirana's full and possibly reverse-swinging ball into the leg side. He misses, Pathirana hits, and Shreyas is out for 72 off 41.

PBKS are winning this, surely, except they're at pretty much the same score from which CSK collapsed earlier today. It's also a similar situation to this match in 2020...

Shashank Singh hits two sixes in a 12-ball 23, and he's probably sealed a PBKS win, but he gives CSK something to cheer by providing Dewald Brevis with a chance to take one of the catches of the season.

You often see fielders catch the ball inside the rope, toss it in the air, step out, step back in, and catch it again. Brevis on this occasion caught it, tossed it, stepped out, stepped back, caught it again, tossed it again, stepped out again, stepped back again, and finally completed the catch after Shashank pulled Jadeja powerfully to his right at deep midwicket. The line he was running in, and the fact that he had to jump, forced him to interact with the boundary cushions not once but twice.

He's seeing it beautifully now, and hitting it even better. This is a man in the form of his life. Pathirana misses three yorkers in the 17th over, but only once does he miss his length by anything other than a marginal amount. Iyer launches that slot ball for six down the ground. The next one is fuller and nearly in the blockhole, but he gets his front leg out of the way, leans back, and manufactures just enough room for a wristy whip over wide long-on. Then there's a leg-side wide. Then Pathirana lands one in the blockhole, but marginally outside off, and Shreyas opens his bat face to squeeze it between backward point and short third. PBKS are coasting now.

Looks for the yorker, ends up bowling a low full-toss slanted away from the left-handed Nehal Wadhera. He opens his bat face and times his slice beautifully, except he hits it in the direction of backward point, where Ravindra Jadeja makes a tricky low catch look routine. PBKS are 136 for 3 in 14.3 overs.

Iyer was on 29 off 25 at the point when Pathirana dropped Prabhsimran. Since then, he's scored 21 off seven balls. A massive launch over long-on off a Curran slower ball in the 14th over, and then a crisp flat-bat hit through cover point for four, before he brings up the landmark, off his 32nd ball, with a single.

You could say he started slowly and put pressure on Prabhsimran, or you could say he was getting to grips with the conditions, knowing the required rate was still under control. Either way, he's hitting them sweetly now, and PBKS need 60 off 36.

Matheesha Pathirana runs to his right from short third to get under a fairly straightforward chance after Prabhsimran steps out to Noor Ahmad, attempts to launch him straight, and miscues a wrong'un after being beaten in the air.

The shot was coming, with PBKS having scored just five off the previous over against Curran's cutters from round the wicket.

Iyer, on strike for the next ball, punishes that error, pulling a short one over a leaping deep midwicket fielder.

But Prabhsimran doesn't really make CSK pay for the lapse; he picks out deep midwicket with a slog-sweep off the last ball of that eventful over. He's out for 54 off 36, and PBKS are 116 for 2 in 13 overs.

CSK have snuck ahead of PBKS on our win probability graph. PBKS need 75 from 42.

Second in successive innings for Prabhsimran. Gets there in 31 balls, and rushes from 40 to 51 in the 11th over, bowled by Matheesha Pathirana, with a whipped six off his pads and a reach-out stab past backward point for four. PBKS now need 89 from 54, with nine wickets in hand. At the other end, Shreyas Iyer is on 25 off 20.

This has been an absolutely terrific innings so far, 39 off 25 balls at a control percentage of 92. He's been selective with when to go after the bowling, and he's been clinical when he's done so. Hits Noor Ahmed for four and six back-to-back in the ninth over, a paddle sweep followed by a dance down the pitch to launch him dead-straight.

PBKS are 81 for 1 in nine overs.

Deivarayan Muthu wrote a lovely piece on Prabhsimran Singh's evolution in the lead-up to this game, and the PBKS opener shows his range in the fourth over of the chase with a flat-bat six over long-on and a cheeky scoop past short fine leg for four.

Priyansh Arya, the other half of this exciting opening pair, then falls to a well-directed bouncer from Khaleel Ahmed in the next over, but not before hitting two fours off the previous three balls. PBKS are 44 for 1.

A 47-ball 88 from Sam Curran put Chennai Super Kings on course to breach 200 for only the second time in IPL 2025 and the first time at home, only for Yuzvendra Chahal to send their innings spiralling to an early close with four wickets in the 19th over including a hat-trick.

It left the match curiously poised: this black-soil pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium seemed two-paced through most of CSK’s innings, so 191 may well be a testing target for Punjab Kings. CSK could have ended up with a significantly bigger total, though, and PBKS have a line-up of serious depth.

The finish of CSK’s innings was an extraordinary one. Chahal had only been used for two overs up to the start of the 19th, with PBKS reluctant to use him or the left-arm orthodox spinner Harpreet Brar against CSK’s left-hand batters. But with the famously spin-shy MS Dhoni new to the crease, Shreyas Iyer threw his legspinner the ball.

Dhoni hit a six off his first legal ball, only to hole out next ball. A procession followed, with Chahal dismissing Deepak Hooda, Anshul Kamboj and Noor Ahmad off the last three balls of the over.

Through all this, Shivam Dube, CSK’s best spin-hitter, was stuck at the non-striker’s end. He may even have wondered if he should have refused a second run off the first ball Hooda faced, and kept the strike against Chahal. Dube picked up an inside-edged four off the first ball of the final over but holed out next ball, which meant CSK had lost their last five wickets for six runs, in the space of seven balls.

Until that harebrained passage of play, CSK might have been the happier side by far. They had lost both openers early, but Curran had defied the two-paced pitch and sapping humidity to play an innings of some substance. His 47-ball innings included nine fours, four sixes and just ten dot balls.

The defining passage of his innings came in the 16th over, when Iyer chose to give the military-medium Suryansh Shedge a third over rather than risk bowling Chahal or Brar against the two left-handers at the crease. Shedge had conceded just 14 off his first two overs, but Curran kept pouncing on his errors now, hitting him for two sixes and two fours in a 26-run over.

That Shedge had to bowl that over was also an effect of PBKS losing Glenn Maxwell - possibly for the rest of the season - to a broken finger. Maxwell has had a difficult IPL with the bat, but has contributed significantly with his offspin, which PBKS would have welcomed against CSK's left-handers.

MS Dhoni's innings is brief, but it's fun while it lasts. His entry prompts PBKS to bring their legspinner out of cold storage to bowl the 19th over. Yuzvendra Chahal looks to keep it outside Dhoni's arc with his first ball and ends up bowling a wide. Then Dhoni steps out and launches a big six over long-on (Ravindra Jadeja catches it in front of the CSK dugout), as if to ask, "who, me, can't hit spin?"

Then Chahal slows one down a little more outside off, and Dhoni can't quite manufacture the power needed to clear long-off.

Two balls later, Deepak Hooda slices Chahal to backward point, and CSK are 186 for 7. That brings in CSK's Impact Player. Anshul Kamboj walks in, replacing Ayush Mhatre from the starting XI. And Chahal gets him first ball, bursting a skiddy slider through an attempted back-foot jab. CSK are 186 for 8 in 18.5 overs.

AND CHAHAL COMPLETES THE HAT-TRICK, with Noor Ahmad taking on the big shot off the slowed-down legbreak off the last ball of the over, and failing to get any sort of distance on it. Jansen runs in off the long-on boundary and catches him close to the 30-yard circle.

It's Chahal's second hat-trick in the IPL.

Shivam Dube, CSK's best spin-hitter, was stuck at the non-striker's end through all of this. He'll wonder whether he should have refused a second run off the first ball Hooda faced.

A weird sort of dismissal, a short ball from Jansen in the 18th over that Curran was looking to evade, only to get a sliver through to the keeper. And a massive roar breaks out at Chepauk, because you know who begins to walk in.

What an innings from Curran, though: 88 off 47 is quite an effort on a pitch that has seemed a little two-paced. Pulled and hooked brilliantly in particular. He scored 30 off 11 balls with those shots according to our ball-by-ball data, hitting five fours and a six (out of a total of nine fours and four sixes) along the way.

At the start of the 16th over, PBKS had three overs left of their two main quicks, Arshdeep and Jansen. They also had four overs left from their two spinners, Brar and Chahal. With two left-handers at the crease, however, PBKS decide not to risk the left-arm spinner or the leggie who doesn't use the wrong'un that much. And they don't have their offspinner Glenn Maxwell, who would have been ideal for this match-up.

They give the military-medium Suryansh Shedge a third over instead, and Curran takes him apart. Twenty-six come off the over, and there could have been more, because Shreyas Iyer pulled off a leaping save at the edge of the boundary to put the ball back onto the field of play when Curran launched him for what could have been a six off a free-hit.

CSK are 160 for 4 in 16 overs.

Gets there in 30 balls, which is an excellent effort given the conditions. He scored quickly against spin when he came in, and he's also found the odd boundary against the seamers, with the placement of his pulls particularly noteworthy. And just the three dot balls en route to the half-century, which is particularly impressive given the oppressive humidity.

An angry wave of the bat in the direction of the CSK dugout after he gets to fifty - is he telling the team management they should have given him a longer run in the XI? Who can say.

This has been a tricky pitch, with the seamers getting some balls to skid and some balls to grip, with cutters and cross-seam balls amplifying the inconsistencies. Now Omarzai gets one to zip through from a length and bowl Brevis for 32 off 26 balls. CSK are 126 for 4 in 14.1 overs. In walks Shivam Dube.

A little bit of 90s-ODI-style medium-fast bowling from Azmatullah Omarzai and Suryansh Shedge in the 10th and 11th overs, and they only concede one boundary between them. Not the quickest pitch, and there's a bit of grip for the cutters. CSK are 94 for 3 in 11.

Three single-digit scores in his three previous innings this season, but that's just the nature of T20. Sam Curran is looking in excellent touch against PBKS's spinners today. Jumps out and launches Brar for a straight six, then sweeps and pulls Yuzvendra Chahal for back-to-back fours. With Dewald Brevis joining in the fun with a big pulled six later in the Chahal over, CSK take 16 runs off the ninth, and move to 80 for 3.

What an over. It's the final over of the powerplay, and PBKS take a risk by bringing on their left-arm spinner against two LHBs. Ravindra Jadeja duly hits Harpreet Brar for three fours in the first four balls. He doesn't have the greatest numbers against spin, but he's bossing this favourable match-up.

Then he looks to cut one that's perhaps a touch too close to him, and gets a thin edge through to keeper Josh Inglis. It's not given out on the field, but PBKS review and get their man. CSK end the powerplay 48 for 3.

Now Jansen strikes with the same sort of ball that Arshdeep used to get Rasheed. This time it's Mhatre, and this time he doesn't sky his big hit, but ends up toe-ending it towards mid-off, where Shreyas Iyer takes a fine low catch. 22 for 2 in 3.1.

After that slow start, Rasheed gets going with two lovely shots off Arshdeep Singh in the third over. A chip straight down the ground for four, and an authoritative pull for six.

Then Arshdeep bowls a clever little scrambled-seam cutter, on a length, slanting away from Rasheed's hitting arc, turning away a little further. Rasheed tries to launch it over mid-off, and ends up skewing a high catch to extra-cover.

CSK are 21 for 1 in 2.5 overs.

They're 8 for 0 in two overs, and Shaik Rasheed is batting on 1 off 8. The natural variation in the extent of Marco Jansen's swing into the right-hander's giving him a bit of trouble; he's just been beaten three times in a row.

Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer chose to bowl after winning the toss against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

PBKS suffered a major injury setback in the lead-up to the game, with allrounder Glenn Maxwell ruled out with a fractured finger – it is not yet known how long he will be out for, but Shreyas seemed to suggest he may miss the remainder of IPL 2025.

Despite bowling first, PBKS named a starting XI of immense batting depth, with allrounders Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar and Marco Jansen slotted in from Nos. 7 to 9 – all are likely to move down a spot with Prabhsimran Singh almost certain to come off the Impact Player bench and open the batting when they chase. Brar came in for Maxwell, meaning PBKS fielded only three overseas players.

CSK, with just two wins in nine games so far, will be out of contention for the playoffs if they lose tonight. They named the same line-up that featured in their last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ayush Mhatre, 2 Shaik Rasheed, 3 Sam Curran, 4 Ravindra Jadeja, 5 Dewald Brevis, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Matheesha Pathirana.
Impact bench: Anshul Kamboj, R Ashwin, Jamie Overton, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh.

Punjab Kings: 1 Priyansh Arya, 2 Josh Inglis (wk), 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Nehal Wadhera, 5 Shashank Singh, 6 Suryansh Shedge, 7 Azmatullah Omarzai, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Marco Jansen, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.
Impact bench: Prabhsimran Singh, Musheer Khan, Xavier Bartlett, Pravin Dubey, Vijaykumar Vyshak.