Five-time champions Chennai Super Kings made a winning start to their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign with a four-wicket victory over fellow five-time champions Mumbai Indians at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday.
Put into bat, MI managed 155/9 in their 30 overs with former captain Rohit Sharma falling for a duck and stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav falling to a lightening quick stumping to MS Dhoni for 29.
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Opener Rachin Ravindra (65*) and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (53) led the CSK run charge with a 67-run stand for the second wicket.
Dhoni walked in to bat in the run chase to the usual loud cheers at the Chepauk with CSK at 152/6. With all anticipating the former captain to finish it all with a six, Dhoni played out his first two deliveries as dot balls to end the 18th over.
On the first ball of the next over, it was Rachin Ravindra, who finished the match with a six pulling his New Zealand teammate Mitchell Santner over the mid-wicket boundary.
Young left-arm spinner debutant Vignesh Puthur registered the best bowling figures for MI taking 3/32 off his 4 overs.
Making his IPL debut on Sunday, Puthur, who hails from Malappuram in Kerala, dismissed Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube and Deepak Hooda off successive overs to almost set the cat among the pigeons.
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A heart-warming moment came right after the match when Dhoni was shaking hands with the MI players and as he came face to face with Puthur, the young spinner appeared awestruck facing the most successful Indian captain.
But as great men make everybody comfortable while interacting with them, Dhoni gave Puthur a pat on the shoulder and listened calmly to what the young spinner had to say.
Dhoni’s gesture even pleased Ravi Shastri in the commentary box, who said on air, “And that’s a great sight, a pat on the back, on the shoulder for the young Vignesh Puthur, I don’t think he’ll forget it for a long time.”
The men in take home the honours!A classic clash in Chennai ends in the favour of #CSKScorecardhttps://t.co/QlMj4G7kV0#TATAIPL | #CSKvMI | @ChennaiIPL pic.twitter.com/ZGPkkmsRHe IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 23, 2025
This was the 13th consecutive opening game of a season that Mumbai Indians lost. It was way back in 2012 MI had won their opening match of a season the last time. CSK bettered their head-to-head record against MI winning six of the last seven games since the second leg of IPL 2021.
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