CSK prevails over GT for its fifth title in the finals of the IPL 2023. The finals which was played for three days, thanks to the first day wash out due to heavy rain and rain interruptions during the reserve day turned out to be full of twists and turns. Finally, the Chennai Super Kings team overcame the spirited fight from Gujarat Titans to pay fitting tribute to its legendary captain Dhoni, for whom this could be the last IPL.
CSK by winning the final, thus won the record fifth title and thus equaled the record set by Rohit Sharma's Mumbai Indians (MI). Winning the toss, CSK captain Dhoni opted to bowl expecting the rain interruptions due to the weather forecast. Even GT captain Hardik Pandya said he would have loved to bowl.
CSK's stint in the field was marred by misfields, dropped catches, and wayward bowling. They gave life to the man in the form of Subhman Gill who was dropped at the individual score of 3. He went on to score a quickfire 39(20) before an alert Dhoni effected a smart stumping to nip his innings in the bud as spectators were reminded of how Gill punished MI for the drop catch with a stunning century.
But on the other end, Wriddhiman Saha continued and scored a brisk 54 (39), and then came the surprising element. Sai Sudarshan, the Chennai lad playing for GT had other ideas. After a sedate start, punished CSK and showed what he can do with his talent. He scored 96 ((47) and narrowly missed the century. Captain Hardik Pandya scored a quick-fire 21 (12) to remain unbeaten as GT reached 214/4 in 20 overs. Tushar Deshpande turned expensive and conceded the highest runs 56 in four overs while Teekshana picked 2 wickets for 44. Deepak Chahar who dropped Gill picked a wicker for 38.
>In the innings break, heavy rain came and into four balls of CSK innings, heavy rain once again interrupted the play. From then on, various speculations started and finally the play resumed with Chennai set the target of 171 in 15 overs. Openers Conway and Ruthuraj Gaikwad came out all guns blazing and while Gaikwad scored 26 (16), Conway scored 47 (25). Shivam Dube and Ajinkya Rahane continued from thre on and Rahane pounded 27 (13). Ambati Rayudu seems to be determined to turn the final into a memorable one for him and Dhoni and CSK and blasted a 6,6and 4 to score 19 (8) and at that time, CSK victory seemed to be mere formality.However, Mohit Sharma had other ideas and he removed Ambati Rayudu and stunned the entire crowd and CSK supporters by sending Dhoni for a first-ball duck. Shami then tightened the screws with just 8 runs in his next over and with Jadeja and Shivam Dube unable to middle the ball, things boiled down to 14 of 6 balls. Mohit Sharma bowled the final over came with yorkers in the blackhole conceding only one or none and it just came to 10 runs of two balls. At that time, GT bowling coach Ashish Nehra who is always animated outside the boundary line sent drinks to Mohit and with it some advice, and captain Hardik Pandya slowed the proceedings.
This helped Jadeja, to regain his composure, and blasted a six and a four to seal a thrilling victory for CSK. Mohit Sharma got 3 wickets but failed to prevent the inevitable. Dhoni who was silent all during the final proceedings of the match, still remained unmoved even as the players and supporters broke into celebrations. All in all a thrilling final and a fitting tribute to Dhoni, one of the legends of the world cricket.