Chennai Super Kings 171 for 5 in 15 overs (Conway 47, Dube 32*, Mohit 3-36) beat Gujarat Titans 214 for 4 (Sudharsan 96, Saha 54) by five wickets on DLS method
At 1.35 am on the third day of a T20 match, Chennai Super Kings emerged as the new IPL champions, winning their fifth title to draw level with the Mumbai Indians.
Ravindra Jadeja pierced the silence built by tens of thousands of people when he hit the final two balls of an incredible, chaotic, unbelievable chase for boundaries. One straight in front of him. The other behind.
An equation of 171 off 15 overs reduced 13 off one. Mohit Sharma made it even tougher – 10 off 2. CSK hadn’t hit a boundary in 13 balls. They had, however, lost two wickets. One of them was MS Dhoni, for a duck.
That was looking like it might be his last act on a cricket field. He will be 42 soon. He said preparing for the IPL at his age was taking a “heavy toll”. When he came in, Ahmedabad broke the sound barrier. When he left, the crowd was bereft.
But, an hour and a half later, they looked on, having suffered through the rain, braving difficult journeys to and from the ground, as their hero walked up onto the podium and picked up his fifth IPL trophy. In a rare show of emotion, once the winning runs were hit, Dhoni wrapped his arms around Jadeja and lifted him clean off the ground. That’s how much it meant to him. It even convinced him to keep playing for another year.
None of this would have been possible though without the impact of Ambati Rayudu. He tweeted that this would be his final IPL match. When he walked out, ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster suggested CSK only had a 35% chance of victory. He lashed Mohit for 6, 4 and 6 and with those three hits, his team became overwhelming favourites – 93%.
Source: ESPN
