‘All teams struggle among themselves to meet the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL finals’, as the cliche goes. Things haven’t altered much in IPL 2023, with CSK reaching the final once more.
This season, they defeated the defending champions, table-toppers, and championship hopefuls, the Gujarat Titans, in Qualifier 1 at Chepauk.
This would be CSK’s 10th IPL final appearance in 16 seasons (two of which they did not compete), indicating one thing for certain: this team understands how to win big games. MS Dhoni’s leadership techniques may appear strange at times, but he understands what he’s doing and knows something that we as fans do not.
This season’s campaign is extremely similar to the IPL 2021 campaign, in which they won their fourth IPL title.
This article will examine the similarities between CSK’s campaigns in the IPL 2021 and 2023 seasons.
3) Tales of a turnaround
That was the first time when CSK failed to qualify for playoffs and finished at ninth place. Everyone was surprised because they had previously reached at least the playoffs in every single season.
MS Dhoni himself conceded that the kind of cricket they were playing was out of date, with too many dot balls in the middle.
In the IPL 2021, Moeen Ali was added into the mix and batted in the top 3/4 to oppose spinners up front, while the rest of the batters countered pacers from the other end.
This move transformed the club’s fortunes, as they reversed their performance and qualified for the playoffs as the second-best team, eventually winning the championship.
They were once again in ninth position in the points standings for the IPL 2022 season.
The team’s ultra-aggressive strategy was proving to be a double-edged sword for them now that the opposition had ceased feeding favourable spinners to Moeen Ali. They need a batter who could act as a floater, aggressor, and the batting line-up’s shield in the event of a collapse.
This puts Ajinkya Rahane into the IPL 2023 picture, and CSK gave him a lot of freedom at the top, which worked like a charm. CSK qualified for the playoffs and finished at second position in the table again this year.
2) A sedate approach at the top
Despite their notion of going ‘bang bang’ in their batting strategy, CSK chose a more moderate approach in Powerplay, losing the fewest wickets in that part of the game.
Throughout the IPL 2021 season, they lost 17 wickets inside the powerplay while attempting to score an average of 40-45 runs each innings. This enabled them to consistently amass 180+ points and hence win matches.
Despite scoring 145.24 runs on average, they only lost nine wickets in the powerplay overs in 2023. One of the key reasons for this is their lack of sixes throughout this round of the game.
In both seasons, the Chennai-based team has attempted to play percentage cricket.
1) Middle overs explosion
When compared to previous seasons, CSK’s approach in the middle overs changed dramatically in both IPL 2021 and 2023.
They always kept a combination of spinners – Suresh Raina and Moeen Ali – and pacers – Ambati Rayudu, Sam Curran, and Ravindra Jadeja – at the crease in IPL 2021. Their SR of 131.48 was much higher than the IPL 2020 SR of 119.84.
They used their tried and proven method again in IPL 2023, and the addition of Ajinkya Rahane made it work flawlessly. This is in contrast to IPL 2022 when they were pitted against pacers in the middle.
This year, Shivam Dube and Devon Conway have provided excellent support to the pacers, as seen by their SR of 140.94 in that period.