Curran 88, Chahal hat-trick, CSK 190 all out

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.