NEW DELHI: Chennai Super Kings snapped their five-match losing streak, and true to form, it was captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, ably supported by Shivam Dube’s resilient knock, who delivered a Player of the Match performance to guide CSK to a five-wicket win.
The victory marked only CSK’s second of the IPL 2025 season, as they continue to occupy the bottom spot on the points table. Reflecting on the hard-fought win, Dhoni admitted the team had endured a tough stretch and expressed hope that this result would serve as a morale booster.
“It’s good to win a game. When you play a tournament like this, you want to win games. Unfortunately the [earlier] matches didn’t go our way for whatever reasons. There can be lots of reasons. It’s good to have a win on our side. Gives confidence to the whole team and helps us improve in areas we want to improve.
“We all knew that when it doesn’t come your way in cricket, God makes it very tough, and it was a tough game. If you see the powerplay, whether it was the combination or the conditions, we were struggling with the ball. And then we weren’t able to get the start we wanted as a batting unit. Also the fall of wickets,” Dhoni said during the post-match interview.
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While Dhoni earned the Player of the Match award for his quickfire 26 off 11 balls, it was Dube who anchored the chase under pressure. Though he was kept quiet early on, he turned the tide in the 19th over, punishing Shardul Thakur with a sequence that included a deft four, a six off a full toss, and capitalizing on a no-ball to help CSK score 19 runs in the over. With just four needed off the final over, Dube stayed unbeaten on 43 off 37, sealing the win with a boundary off Avesh Khan.
The left-handed batter later shared insights into his approach, emphasising adaptability and composure.
“This means a lot, losing 5 games in a row that is not CSK, our bowlers bowled really well and today I had wanted to stay till the end and I had this thought that I wanted to finish the game and I felt this is the time to take the game very deep after losing few wickets in the middle. It’s not about the mindset and it is about playing according to the situation which is why instead of attacking, I felt taking the game deep was a better option.
“My plan was very simple, which is not to try and hit the ball very hard because the bowlers were executing very well. Taking positives from this game to next game is very important,” said Dube.
