IPL 2025: Kolkata Wins by 8 Wickets, Chennai Faces Fifth Consecutive Defeat, Sunil Narine Shines with Best Performance

Chennai: In the 25th match of IPL 2025, played on Friday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai Super Kings suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders by 8 wickets. Under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, CSK faced their fifth straight loss in the tournament. Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and opted to bowl first.

Batting first, Chennai Super Kings managed to score only 103 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs. Chasing the modest target, Kolkata achieved the total with ease in just 10.1 overs, scoring 107 runs for 2 wickets. This marked Chennai’s fifth consecutive loss and their third straight defeat at Chepauk — a first in IPL history. This also became CSK’s biggest defeat while defending a total (with most balls remaining).

Chasing 104, Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine gave Kolkata a flying start, adding 46 runs in 4 overs for the first wicket. De Kock scored 23 runs off 16 balls, hitting 3 sixes, before getting out. Narine followed soon in the 8th over, but not before playing a match-winning knock of 44 runs from just 18 balls, including 5 fours and 2 sixes.

Kolkata hit a total of 10 fours in their innings, while Chennai failed to hit even that many across their entire innings — CSK managed only 8 fours. Kolkata chased the target with 59 balls to spare. With this win, Kolkata jumped from sixth to third position on the points table.

Batting first, CSK’s top order completely failed. Their highest scorer was Shivam Dube with 31 runs. Devon Conway (12) and Rachin Ravindra (4) couldn't make an impact, and CSK lost 5 wickets for just 70 runs. The team's lowest-ever IPL score at Chepauk, this performance highlighted the batting struggles. Dhoni scored only 1 run off 4 balls. The 9th wicket, Noor Ahmad, fell at 79, and it seemed the team might not cross 100, but Dube managed to take the score to 103.

Sunil Narine Named Player of the Match

Before his explosive 44-run innings, Sunil Narine took 3 crucial wickets, including the LBW dismissal of MS Dhoni. He was named the Player of the Match for his all-round performance. Apart from Narine, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakaravarthy picked up 2 wickets each, while Vaibhav Arora claimed 1 wicket.

Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI:
Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.