1 week Ago By Deivarayan Muthu
At 10.27pm on Friday , CSK's fortress Chepauk crumbled in front of empty stands. For the first time in an IPL season, they had suffered three successive defeats at home.
Parts of the stadium had begun to empty out by 9.20pm, when CSK were limited to 103 for 9, their lowest total in Chennai. Even CSK's most beloved fans couldn't watch the horror show anymore.
After CSK had struggled to 158 for 5 in pursuit of 184 against Delhi Capitals (DC) last Saturday , their coach Stephen Fleming had said it was " tough to watch " the chase. On Friday, CSK's batting plumbed such depths that it might have been unwatchable. They meandered to 31 for 2 in the powerplay.
They faced 20 dots during the phase and even allowed Moeen Ali to get away with a wicket-maiden. According to ESPNcricinfo logs, CSK's batters offered an aggressive response to just five of the 36 balls they faced during the powerplay. They didn't have the middle-order firepower to play catch up.
This has been a recurring problem for CSK in IPL 2025 . The average powerplay score this season is 57. For CSK, that average is 45, which, of course, is way off the pace.
Neither Devon Conway nor Rachin Ravindra are power-hitters. They rely more on timing. Rahul Tripathi has looked a pale shadow of the powerplay dasher he had once been, never comfortable against pace or spin this IPL.
"Our openers not the ones who will start slogging or look to hit across the line," MS Dhoni said after CSK were decimated by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). "But what is also important is not to get desperate seeing the scoreboard. You need, maybe, one or two boundaries and run rate keeps on going.
If you start looking for 60 in six overs with our line-up, it will be very difficult for us. "It's important to get partnerships going, maybe look to capitalise in the middle and the later overs. That's what our strength will be.
But if we lose too many wickets, the middle order needs do their role differently and the slog has been delayed for quite a while." When CSK won the IPL title in 2023 , they had a similar top order with two accumulators, but the middle order dripped with power and versatility. Ambati Rayudu was a particularly strong presence in that middle order and brought with him the ability to go - and go hard - from the outset.
Since Rayudu retired after winning the title in 2023, CSK haven't filled that void. They tried Daryl Mitchell in that role in 2024 , but he didn't produce the kind of output CSK and their fans might have been looking for. Then, in the 2024 mega auction, they perhaps missed a trick by not going harder for a proven middle-order batter in the league, especially with Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja 's finishing abilities on the wane.
They took punts on Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda , who were not regulars for their franchises in IPL 2024, hoping they would have late-career revivals at CSK like Ajinkya Rahane had in the recent past. But that certainly hasn't happened yet with Vijay or Hooda. The story might have been different for CSK this season had at least one among Vijay, Hooda and Tripathi come good.
The story might have also been different had one of Conway and Ravindra been more consistent at the top. An injury to Ruturaj Gaikwad , who has been sidelined from the rest of this IPL, has compounded CSK's batting troubles. The first year after a mega auction can be challenging for most teams, including five-time champions like CSK.
Mike Hussey , CSK's batting coach, acknowledged that some of their new recruits were still working their way into their roles. "Yeah, it [teams needing time to settle after a mega auction] is a good point," Hussey said. "Yeah, we've got some new players that have come to the franchise, so it does take a little bit of time for them to really fit in and feel like they belong.
We're trying to fast-track that as much as we can. And then it's just getting to know them and getting to know their games and how they play their best cricket as well. So, we're working very hard behind the scenes with those guys.
"And the players, you know, you cannot fault their work ethic. You know, they're doing the hard work, but unfortunately, it just hasn't quite translated into performances just yet. But one of the real strengths of CSK over the years is we'll identify the players that we've wanted and then we really back them.
Even if things aren't quite going to plan at the moment, we'll back them and keep working hard with them and keep showing some faith and trust in them. And then hopefully that will be repaid in the long run." As of now, CSK are nearing a point of no return this season, and even their fans are running out of patience - and from Chepauk - with their seemingly outdated style of batting.
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