IPL 2025: CSK vs KKR, Match 25 – Who Said What?

On Friday, April 11, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squared off in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Match 25 at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. After winning the toss, KKR chose to bowl first.

Devon Conway (12 off 11), who was out leg before leg before Moeen Ali, dealt CSK the opening blow as they got off to a poor start. Soon after, Harshit Rana forced his countryman Rachin Ravindra (4 off 9) to return to the pavilion. Rahul Tripathi (16 off 22) and Vijay Shankar (29 off 21) formed a 43-run partnership, although it was a sluggish one (33 balls). Vijay Shankar’s dismissal marked the start of CSK’s serious problems. Shivam Dube, who scored 31* off 29, was the only hitter who could do much. CSK’s batting performance was terrible, as they managed to score 103/9 off 20 overs.

KKR got off to a fast start in the pursuit. Sunil Narine (44 off 18) and Quinton de Kock (23 off 16), the openers, moved along at a good clip. Even the next hitters, Rinku Singh (15 off 12) and Ajinkya Rahane (20 off 17), played smart enough to lead their team home by eight wickets with 9.5 overs left.

Talking Points

1. Lack of boundaries hurt CSK

The home team began the innings sedately and viewers might have thought they would pick up pace soon. However, the expectation remained unfulfilled as the innings never got going. The openers could not find boundaries easily, and if they didn’t, one would have probably thought the middle order would. But they didn’t too.

Though Tripathi and Shankar formed a good partnership they were not quick enough and hence the pressure increased with every passing over. Credit does go to the KKR bowlers for understanding the conditions and bowling as per the situation and the opposition just could not come out of the quicksand.

2. Dhoni comes at no. 9, but fails

After becoming the CSK captain once again, there was palpable excitement among the CSK fans and great expectation from Dhoni to turn things around. However, he could not succeed tonight even when it comes to batting . To begin with, he came out at no. 9 which might be debated as probably CSK needed an experienced hand to handle the situation earlier.

On top of that, he looked like he would take a bit of time, understandably, to get going as there were many overs left. But, unfortunately for him, he was LBW. The decision, however, may be debated as there was a murmur on the snicko when the ball passed the bat but the third umpire adjudicated in favour of the bowling team. The night did not belong to CSK and Dhoni.

3. KKR show the pitch had no demons as such

KKR, buoyed by a small target of 104, decided to attack right from the start. De Kock and Narine got going and formed a 46-run partnership in 26 balls. After De Kock’s departure, Narine kept going as he smashed five sixes and two fours in a 44-run knock.

Rahane and Rinku played with a cool head thereafter and saw the team home quickly, providing themselves a thumping win and a huge boost to the NRR. They showed CSK and the world that the pitch was not that bad to bat on.

Who Said What?

MS Dhoni, Chennai Super Kings Skipper

It has been quite a few nights that has not gone our way. The challenge has been there, we have to accept the challenge. Today I felt we did not have enough runs on the board. It has been the case over there, when we bowled in the second innings it stopped a bit, today it did in the first innings. When you lose too many wickets, there is pressure and with quality spinners it is difficult. We never got any partnerships and bit more partnerships, application and we would be fine.

What is important is to see the conditions, couple of games we have done decently well, back your strengths and play the shots you can play. Not match to someone’s else play. Our openers are good openers, play authentic cricket shots, they don’t slog or look to hit across the line. It is important not to get desperate seeing the scorecard. If we start looking for 60 with our lineup it will be very difficult for us. Get partnerships going, maybe capitalise in the middle and later overs and if we lose wickets, the middle order has to do their job differently. And the slog will be delayed for quite a while.

Ajinkya Rahane, Kolkata Knight Riders Skipper

We had our plans. I have played here last two years, so has Moeen. DJ knows the conditions as well. The wicket is a bit sticky, the ball stops on you a bit. Credit goes to the spinners, our plans worked well today. Long way to go in the tournament, don’t want to share too much of those plans. (On Moeen’s inclusion) In the end, it looked spot-on. (On the surface) I thought the wicket would play together, it looked like a 170 type of wicket.

But can’t take any credit away from the bowlers. Moeen played well – never easy to play just one game and then miss out, and then come back in. So did Sunny and Varun. Sunny went for runs in the last game, but came back strong. So did Vaibhav and Harshit. All in all a good bowling performance.

(On his batting) I’m enjoying my batting, really worked hard last 2-3 years and coming of well. Just want to stay in the moment and keep it really simple. (Was NRR on the minds) Initially no, but after 6 overs we thought if we could finish the game early, it would be good for us.

(On the road ahead) Sometimes you play good cricket but lose, last game was tough for us, losing by 4 runs. Lots of learnings for us, we would like to win now though., Don’t want a win loss, win loss kind of season. All about staying positive.

Sunil Narine, Player of the Match