The five-time champions Chennai Super Kings once again fell short while chasing a big target, as Punjab Kings secured an 18-run win in Match 22 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

Devon Conway top-scored with a 69-run knock, while cameos from Shivam Dube (42) and Rachin Ravindra (36) offered some resistance. But it wasn’t enough to overhaul Punjab’s commanding total, set up by Priyansh Arya’s stunning maiden IPL century.

Lockie Ferguson was the standout with the ball for Punjab, grabbing two key wickets. Glenn Maxwell and Yash Thakur chipped in with crucial breakthroughs that helped keep CSK’s scoring in check during the second innings.

Devon Conway’s 69-run contribution alongside cameos by Shivam Dube (42) and Rachin Ravindra (36) were not enough on the night after Priyansh Arya’s blazing maiden IPL ton powered the home side to 219/6 in the first innings.

For Punjab, Lockie Ferguson claimed two wickets on the night while Glenn Maxwell and Yash Thakur provided important breakthroughs to keep in control of the second innings.

CSK Start Steady But Lose Momentum

Although if one were to compare wickets in hand, Chennai navigated the power-play without the loss of one, but were not able to maintain the ever-growing run-rate. New Zealand duo Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway raised 61 runs before the former tried to advance down the pitch and was stumped way out by wicket-keeper Prabhsimran Singh.

Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s (1) lean run at the No.3 position continued as he was caught by Shashank Singh at short mid-wicket. Impact substitute Shivam Dube (42) showed glimpses of his big-hitting prowess and stitched an 89-run stand with Conway.

The former brought his half-century in 37 balls, having slowed down after an initial burst, but struggled to find the boundary. Just when it seemed like they could bring the game back in CSK’s favour, he was cleaned up by Ferguson to end his time at the crease.

Dhoni’s Cameo Raises Hope, But Punjab Hold Nerve

The crowd went into a frenzy as Mahendra Singh Dhoni (27) walked out to bat, higher than his usual position these days and he even made the fans believe for a minute. After rotating the strike against Yuzvendra Chahal in the 16th over, the talismanic wicket-keeper batter sent Ferguson for consecutive sixes.

With Conway unable to find the boundary since hitting a six in the 14th over, CSK quite boldly decided to send in Ravindra Jadeja and retire the Kiwi batter.

Dhoni followed it with a four and a six off Arshdeep Singh in the penultimate over and brought the target down to 28 runs required off the last over. In an anti-climactic finish, a full toss by Yash Thakur saw Dhoni hammer it to Chahal straight at short fine leg. Jadeja hit a six later in the over, but the Super Kings were handed their fourth straight defeat.

In the first innings, after electing to bat first, Priyansh Arya gave the Punjab Kings the perfect start by smashing Khaleel Ahmed’s delivery for a six on the first ball of the game before being dropped by the bowler on the very next delivery and proceeded to hit the quick for 17 in the opening over.

However, Chennai hit back by claiming important scalps of Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer, and Marcus Stoinis. Ashwin certainly showed glimpses of his great self on the night when he dismissed Nehal Wadhera (9) and Glenn Maxwell (1) in the same over to reduce the home side to 83/5 in eight overs.

From thereon out Shashank and Arya raised hell for the bowlers and stitched a 71-run stand off 34 deliveries. Arya once again rode his luck, while batting at 79, when he was caught by Mukesh Choudhary, but he stepped onto the rope and it turned into a six. He then raised his century in style by hitting three consecutive sixes of Matheesha Pathirana before edging the next ball for four to reach the three-figure mark.

Arya soon departed after reaching the century milestone, but Marco Jansen (34 not out) and Shashank continued the heavy hitting. The duo raised 65 runs for the seventh wicket, which also saw Shashank raise his third IPL half-century on the final ball of the innings.

Brief scores:

Punjab Kings 219/6 in 20 overs (Priyansh Arya 103, Shashank Singh 52*, Marco Jansen 34*; Khaleel Ahmed 2-45, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-48) defeat CSK 201/5 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 69, Shivam Dube 42, Rachin Ravindra 36; Lockie Ferguson 2-40, Glenn Maxwell 1-11, Yash Thakur 1-39) by 18 runs

Lucknow Super Giants held their nerve in a last-over thriller to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by four runs in a high-scoring contest at Eden Gardens on Tuesday.

Chasing 239, KKR looked in cruise control at 157/2 after a blazing start from Sunil Narine (30 off 13) and a composed 50+ stand between Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer. But with just 83 needed from the final 7 overs, things unraveled dramatically.

LSG skipper Rishabh Pant slowed things down, just as he had in the T20 World Cup final, giving his bowlers time to regroup. Shardul Thakur struck the turning blow, breaking the Rahane-Iyer stand and triggering a collapse—KKR lost 5 wickets for just 23 runs.

Earlier, Mitchell Marsh smashed his fourth fifty of the season while Nicholas Pooran blasted a 21-ball half-century as Lucknow Super Giants’ top-order made light work of Kolkata Knight Riders’ attack to post a mammoth 238/3.

On a sweltering afternoon with a real feel of 40°C, LSG’s opening pair of Aiden Markram (47 off 28; 4×4, 2×6) and Marsh (81 off 48; 6×4, 5×6) gave them a blazing start, adding 99 runs off just 62 balls after being put in to bat.

Pooran then lit up the evening with his 36-ball unbeaten 87, studded with seven fours and eight sixes, to power them to their second highest IPL total.

The lefthander cleverly targeted the short leg-side boundary from the dressing room end, and smashed Harshit Rana for two massive sixes over the leg-side to start the 17th over — regaining the Orange Cap from Marsh in the process.

Such was the domination that LSG reached 95 without loss at the halfway stage and then added 143 in the last 10 overs with Pooran leading the carnage.

It was a clinical batting performance from LSG’s top-three. Markram’s early impetus, Marsh’s consistency, and Pooran’s finishing fireworks left KKR completely outclassed on their preferred dry and sticky wicket.

Markram was the early aggressor, plundering Spencer Johnson for 18 runs in his second over. He lofted two fours and a six off successive deliveries.

KKR’s most economical bowler, Vaibhav Arora, began impressively with a tight off-stump line, conceding just eight runs in his first two overs but found little support from the other end.

KKR turned to Varun Chakravarthy in the fifth over to stem the flow of run. He initially applied the brakes, conceding just 16 runs from his first three overs. But with both openers well set, the breakthrough never came.

Marsh was particularly fluent, working the gaps with ease, while Markram powered his way to 47 before Harshit Rana finally broke the stand in the 11th over with an off-cutter that rattled the stumps.

But if KKR hoped for respite, Pooran had other ideas. The left-hander launched a brutal assault, racing to his third IPL fifty in just 21 balls as he toyed with the KKR bowlers.

Marsh and Pooran added 71 runs off 30 balls for the second wicket, before the Australian fell to Rana after completing his fifty in 36 balls.

But Pooran ensured the momentum never dipped, smashing Varun for a six and four in the 14th over — the spinner’s most expensive of the evening — which went for 16 runs.

In the middle overs, LSG plundered 75 runs, setting themselves up for a huge total.

KKR’s bowlers had little to offer on their traditionally slow and dry surface.

Varun finished with 0/31, while Johnson was taken apart for 46 runs in his three. Sunil Narine, too, was expensive, leaking 33 from his three overs without a wicket.

Arora remained KKR’s standout bowler, conceding just 35 runs from his four overs, but lacked support from the rest.

Andre Russell, usually deployed as a partnership-breaker, came on only in the 16th over in a baffling decision but by then LSG had made 170.

Spinner Krunal Pandya upstaged brother Hardik as Royal Challengers Bengaluru edged Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in a high-scoring thriller in the IPL 2025 match in Mumbai on Monday.

Krunal picked up three wickets in the final over as Mumbai Indians finished on 209/9 in their 20 overs after being set 222 for victory, to suffer their fourth defeat in five matches in IPL 2025.

This was RCB’s first victory at the Wankhede Stadium in 10 years, having last won at the venue in 2015.

Mumbai Indians were reeling at 99/4 following the dismissal of Suryakumar Yadav (28), before skipper Hardik Pandya (42 off 15 balls) and Tilak Varma (56 off 29 balls) launched a stunning counter-attack to propel the hosts back into the contest.

Hardik went hammer and tongs while hitting three fours and four sixes, while Tilak also fought his way back into form, but the target proved far too much for Mumbai Indians who were again ordinary with the bat for a large part in their chase.

Captain Hardik blazed his way to an entertaining 42 from 15 balls, putting on 89 runs from 32 balls for the fifth wicket with Tilak Varma, who stroked 56 from 29 balls.

RCB’s experience in the pace department proved vital as Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Tilak in the 18th over before Josh Hazlewood doused MI’s hopes, getting Hardik caught at deep midwicket in the penultimate over.

The run chase didn’t start on the right note for the struggling MI. Rohit Sharma (17) was cleaned up by Yash Dayal (2/46) while swinging across an inswinging delivery and MI’s best batter Suryakumar struggled during his 28-run knock for which he consumed 26 balls.

On the other hand, Tilak brought up his maiden fifty of the season off 26 balls to make a comeback after being retired out in the last game.

The fortunes swung when Hardik clobbered two sixes and as many fours off his first four balls off Krunal Pandya in the 14th over.

In the final over, MI needed 19 runs to win but Krunal Pandya took three wickets to shut the doors on them, picking up the wickets of Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar and Naman Dhir to finish with excellent figures of 4/45.

Earlier, RCB rode on scintillating fifties from Virat Kohli (67) and skipper Rajat Patidar (64) to post a huge 221/5.

Kohli ruled the roost with a 42-ball 67 which gave RCB early impetus in Jasprit Bumrah’s (0/29) comeback game. Later on, Patidar smashed a blistering 32-ball 64, hitting four sixes and five fours, while Jitesh Sharma entertained with a splendid cameo of 40 from 19 balls, with four sixes and two fours to dismantle the MI attack in the final few overs.

Put into bat, RCB suffered an early blow when Phil Salt (4) played across the line to an inswinger from Trent Boult (2/57) to be bowled off an inside edge in the first over.

Unfazed by the early blow, RCB recorded their highest powerplay score against Mumbai Indians by scoring 72/1, as both Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal (37 off 22 balls) went all guns blazing.

The momentum had swayed RCB’s way before MI introduced Bumrah in the fourth over, and Kohli welcomed his India teammate with a six over midwicket.

Going at nearly 10 an over, RCB collected 20 runs off the final over in the Powerplay from Deepak Chahar as Padikkal tore into the India bowler, smacking two sixes and a four.

RCB’s onslaught had also left MI clueless for a while, as Will Jacks was brought on to bowl inside the Powerplay and was duly punished for 10 runs.

Padikkal was severe on any MI bowler who erred in his length, smashing three sixes and two fours before he was caught at long-on miscuing the lofted shot off spinner Vignesh Puthur in the ninth over. By then however, he had added 91 runs off 52 balls with Kohli for the second wicket to set the tone for the visitors.

Kohli has had significant success with the bat at Wankhede Stadium and Monday was no different — if he began with a few unconvincing boundaries, his exquisite drive through covers off Boult in the third over showed he was up for a big knock.

Kohli capitalised on every opportunity to score, whether it was picking gaps with ease or his immaculate running between the wickets.

Having completed 13,000 runs to move into unchartered territory for any Indian in the format in a little over 400 matches, a century appeared on the horizon. 

But, in the 15th over, Kohli uncharacteristically walked across the crease to heave Pandya over the leg side but holed out to Naman Dhir at deep midwicket, as his innings ended with two sixes and eight fours.

Patidar was belligerent with his strokes down the ground as well as behind the wicket, bringing up his fifty off only 25 balls. He struck MI skipper Hardik Pandya for 23 runs in the 17th over.

Patidar’s innings ended in the penultimate over when a top edge was grabbed near the ropes by a diving Ryan Rickelton in what was one of the most spectacular catches of this IPL season.