Ravindra Jadeja hit a six and four off the final two balls as the Chennai Super Kings won a record-equalling fifth Indian Premier League title on Monday.
MS Dhoni-led CSK chased down their revised target of 171 in 15 overs with five wickets to spare in a rain-hit final which went past 1.30 am local time Tuesday on a reserve day in Ahmedabad following a washout on Sunday.
Dhoni said he will look to return for the next IPL season after he led CSK to victory over Gujarat Titans in what many believed to be his last match.
IPL 2023 Final, GT vs CSK as it happened: Chennai Super Kings clinch fifth title after thriller
New Zealand’s Devon Conway led the chase with his 25-ball 47 before cameos from Ajinkya Rahane (27) and Shivam Dube, who hit an unbeaten 32, set the stage for Jadeja’s heroics.
Needing 13 off the final over, Mohit Sharma bowled four good balls before Jadeja hit the winning runs to trigger wild celebrations at the world’s biggest cricket stadium.
“This is the best time to announce my retirement. But the amount of love I have received all over. The easy thing would be to walk away from here, but the harder thing would be working hard for nine months and try to play another IPL,” said the 41-year-old Dhoni.
“It would be a gift from me, won’t be easy on the body. You do get emotional, the first game at CSK everyone was chanting my name. My eyes were full of water, I needed to take some time off in the dugout.”
Chennai won the title for the fifth time to go level with Mumbai Indians.
Dhoni kept attracting huge crowds across venues this season and over 80,000 fans cheered the veteran, who had recently said he would take a call on his future later this year, in the final.
Playing his 250th IPL match, Dhoni got out for a first-ball duck as he went back to a stunned silence, but he had the last laugh in his 10th appearance in the final as Chennai captain.
Ambati Rayudu also hit a key 19 off eight balls in his last match after he announced his retirement ahead of the final.
Sai Sudharsan smashed 96 off 47 balls to guide Gujarat, a team which won the crown in their debut season last year in the T20 competition and topped the table in this edition, to 214-4.
In-form Gujarat opener Shubman Gill hit a 20-ball 39 and was named most valuable player, earning the orange cap as the leading batsman with 890 runs.
Gujarat pace spearhead Mohammed Shami got the purple cap as the leading bowler for his 28 wickets with teammates Sharma and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan one behind on 27 each.
Here’s a look at the reactions to CSK’s title win:
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