In Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), MS Dhoni decided to promote Sam Curran to number three. The move didn’t make much sense. And the end result wasn’t that great either. Curran scored just 9 (10) and had to return to the pavilion in the powerplay itself.
MS Dhoni shows faith in Sam Curran
With Dewald Brevis waiting in the wings, it made little to no sense to send the Englishman in at number three. And Brevis, who was making his CSK debut, went on to score 42 (25). Despite this failure, Dhoni decided to put faith in him once again. He isn’t known to make much change and decided to stick with the same XI against the Punjab Kings (PBKS).
Curran pays him back
The pressure was on. CSK are under threat of being knocked out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. But Dhoni backed his instinct and sent Curran in after Shaik Rasheed departed in the 3rd over of the first innings.
After failing once after adopting a rather safe approach, the southpaw decided to go on the aggressive. He didn’t get to face many balls, but by the end of the 10th over, Curran had scored 29 runs from 16 balls.
Considering that CSK had lost Rasheed, Ayush Mhatre and Ravindra Jadeja by the time the powerplay ended, it was important that someone score quickly and preserve their wicket as well. Curran did that perfectly.
The scoring halted for a few overs as Brevis struggled, and therefore, it took the left-handed batter another 14 balls to reach his maiden fifty of the IPL 2025 season. It was also his first half-century for CSK in 1649 days (4 years, 6 months & 6 days).
But Curran didn’t stop there. After his sixth IPL fifty, he really let loose. In the next 17 balls, the southpaw scored 37 runs. He took a particular liking to Suryansh Shedge. The 22-year-old had delivered two good overs, giving away just 14 runs. But in his 3rd over, Curran took him for 25 runs. He smashed 4 boundaries as CSK motored towards 200.
However, Curran’s dismissal when batting on 88 derailed the innings. The score was 172/5 in 17.4 overs when he was caught behind. From there, CSK scored just 18 runs and were all out in 19.2 overs.
