Super Kings down Lucknow to snap IPL losing streak

Chennai Super Kings beat Lucknow Super Giants at Ekana International Cricket Stadium on Monday, claiming their first win in five matches to keep their slim hopes of making the IPL 2025 playoffs alive.

CSK were riding their worst losing streak in history heading into the contest and were priced as heavy underdogs by IPL betting apps.

However, their spinners did an excellent job of containing LSG’s batsmen, with Noor Ahmad going for a miserly 13 runs from his four overs and Ravindra Jadeja taking 2/24 from his.

Rishabh Pant (63 from 49) was the standout batsman for Lucknow, with Mitchell Marsh (30 from 25), Ayush Badoni (22 from 17) and Abdul Samad (20 from 11) the only other players reaching double figures.

Given a target of 167 to win, Chennai began steadily through openers Shaik Rasheed (27 from 19) and Rachin Ravindra (37 from 22).

The visitors seemed in control at 52/0 in the fifth over, finally putting together a strong powerplay after consistently struggling in their recent defeats.

The loss of Rasheed and Ravindra caused a little speedbump, as Rahul Tripathi (9 from 10), Jadeja (7 from 11) and Vijay Shankar (9 from 8) all failed to make progress.

Shivam Dube (43 from 37) dug his heels in, however, allowing MS Dhoni (26 from 11) to swing freely at the other end.

The former Indian captain made light work of Lucknow’s bowlers, timing his run perfectly to overhaul the target with three balls remaining.

“Good to win a game, unfortunately the games haven’t gone our way, it gives a lot of confidence to the team,” Dhoni said after he was named player of the match for the first time since 2019.

“It was a tough game, glad to be on the winning side and hopefully it gives us momentum.

“We were struggling in the first six overs in previous games when bowling but then come back in the middle overs.

“We were not getting the kind of the start also as a batting unit.

“Rasheed batting really well today, he has been with us for few years, we have seen improvement.

“This year he has been batting really well in the nets, we needed a change in the batting order, he batted really well.

“It’s just the start, he has ability to dominate with authentic shots, not like some other batters floating around.”

Cricket bookmakers have shortened CSK’s odds of winning the 2025 IPL title, though they remain at a long +2800.

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