MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings beat Gujarat Titans to win IPL 2023; equals Mumbai Indians’ record for most trophies

CSK won IPL 2023 trophy and equalled Mumbai Indians’ record of winning the tournament for most number of times.

Defending champions Gujarat Titans, led by Hardik Pandya, debuted in IPL last year when they had won the IPL trophy and was looking to repeat the feat again this year, but Dhoni’s master strategies and CSK’s team efforts proved to be big impediments in their plans.

Chennai Super Kings won the toss and put Gujarat Titans to bat first, who amassed 214 runs from 20 overs. Left hand batsman Sai Sudharshan scored 96 runs from 47 deliveries and finally got LBW from Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana’s delivery. Wriddhiman Saha departed after scoring 54 from 39 deliveries. Saha mishit the ball, trying to play a pull shot off Deepak Chahar’s delivery. The ball went straight up and MS Dhoni caught the ball.

Dhoni also played a key role in getting in-form talismanic batsman Shubman Gill. Dhoni’s reaction times was 0.1 second to break the stumps as Gill missed a delivery from Ravindra Jadeja and was out of the crease while trying to play the shot.

Pathirana took two wickets and conceded 44 runs in four overs. Tushar Deshpande was the costliest bowler for CSK, who leaked 56 runs in four overs and went wicketless.

Rain halted the game after just three balls into Chennai Super Kings’ innings. CSK got a revised target of 171 runs from 15 overs. Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad gave CSK a flying start, scoring 52 in the power play, or first four overs. They continued connecting the ball well and hit 72 in the first 6 overs. However, Noor Ahmad broke the partnership soon after as he dismissed Gaikwad, who scored 26 from 16 deliveries. The Afghanistan bowler in the same over also picked the wicket of set batsman Conway, after scoring 47 from 25 deliveries.

Some good hits by Ajinkya Rahane kept CSK in the hunt, before Mohit Sharma got his wicket after he scored 27 from 13 balls. Shivam Dube initially struggled to connect the ball until he hit Rashid Khan’s deliveries out of the park in consecutive deliveries, boosting his confidence.

Ambati Rayudu, playing the last game of his IPL career, joined the party to hit two sixers and a boundary before perishing trying to hit Sharma again.

This brought in CSK captain Dhoni to the crease but he scored a golden duck and it was Mohit Sharma again who picked the wicket that mattered.

CSK needed 13 of the last over and Sharma was entrusted to bowl the final over. Sharma started the over with two brilliant yorkers and a full delivery to keep GT’s hopes alive as CSK needed 11 from three deliveries. Jadeja hit a 6 of the fifth delivery and the game was down to the wire. CSK needed four from the final delivery and wayward legside delivery helped Jadeja guide the ball down the leg for a boundary, helping CSK win.

Perhaps Dhoni-led CSK’s win marked the most befitting end to an IPL season that saw most grounds in India turning yellow as fans even in rival cities adorned yellow jerseys as a tribute to captain cool amid speculations of this being a swan-song season for the 41-year old captain.

The extreme craze to see and support Dhoni across venues, for one last time in case Dhoni announces retirement, was justified by his usual leadership brilliance, be it bringing the best out of his teammates, master strategies including plotting opponent’s wickets or even engaging umpires in a chat to kill time for a purpose for the sake of the team.

Dhoni dropped down the batting order and had faltered with the bat in a few innings, but the crowd never stopped chanting his name during the games and went berserk every time he came out to bat. However, it is unfair to say he completely disappointed with the bat as the 41-year old hit the ball out of the park at crucial times.

This IPL season also saw record viewership on both television and digital platforms; rights for which were picked up by Disney Star and Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema. This was for the first time that BCCI had awarded split media rights and the two companies paid close to Rs 49,000 crore for the media rights of IPL over five years.

IPL also opened gates for all spectators this year and was played across several venues in India, coming out of the cusp of pandemic-led restrictions.

CSK’s win also comes with Dhoni trusting younger bowlers such as India’s Tushar Deshpande, who has yet to play for the Indian senior cricket team, or Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana, who debuted for Sri Lanka only last year, to lead the pace attack. Deepak Chahar was brought into the playing XI at a later stage of the group matches, who then picked up a number of crucial wickets.

CSK had finished second in the group stage after winning 8 matches out of 14 and had a net run rate of 0.652. Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians were placed on the 3rd and 4th slots as they had lower run rates of 0.284 and -0.044, respectively.

Defending champions Gujarat Titans led the table in group stages, winning 10 matches out of 14. However, Chennai Super Kings had defeated Gujarat Titans in the first qualifier match by 15 runs to directly reach the final.

IPL 2023 also came full circle as the tournament had opened on March 31 with CSK taking on Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Before today’s match, CSK had never won any game out of the three they played here. The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is the only IPL venue where they have played at least three games and lost all. However, the equation changed after Chennai won the IPL 2023 final match.

CSK had started their IPL journey this year by losing to Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans in their opening match by five wickets. CSK then went on to win their next two games against Lucknow Super Giants and rival Mumbai Indians, before losing to Rajasthan Royals in their fourth match.

CSK rebounded strongly with three back-to-back wins thereafter and included amassing 226 runs in a match versus Royal Challengers Bangalore.

New Zealand’s Devon Conway scored the most runs for Chennai Super Kings in this IPL, after scoring 672 runs in 15 innings. His batting opening partner Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 590 runs this season and was the team’s second highest run getter.

Meanwhile, Tushar Deshpande with a scalp of 21 wickets was the highest wicket taker for CSK this season, followed by Ravindra Jadeja who picked 20 wickets.

For IPL 2023, Shubman Gill was the highest run getter. He scored 890 runs from 17 innings, which included three centuries and one coming in the second qualifier match. Gill also clinched the record for second most runs scored by an individual in one IPL season, short of Virat Kohli’s 973 runs scored in 2016 edition of IPL.

Mohammed Shami from Gujarat Titans took 28 wickets and won the purple cap as the leading wicket taker for the tournament.

IPL 2023 also saw the rise of Rinku Singh and Yashasvi Jaiswal who represented Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, respectively. They came from humble backgrounds and lit up this IPL with amazing knocks with their bats and helping their team win crucial games.

Both displayed batting prowess through the tournament and there are widespread calls on social media and from some experts too for their inclusion in the national cricket side.

In KKR’s third match in IPL this season, Rinku Singh hit five sixers of last five deliveries against Gujarat Titans to clinch a miracle win. He went on to impress in other matches as well and in KKR’s final outing this season too he scored a quickfire 67 from 33 runs but fell short of beating Lucknow Super Giants by just one run.

Jaiswal was the fifth highest run getter for this IPL season, scoring 625 runs from 14 innings. He scored a century and got five half-centuries. Jaiswal also hit 82 boundaries in this IPL season.