Thread by @bdrijalab

A [Thread] on the iconic comeback of IPL2023

#WhistlePodu #Champion5CSK #WeYelloveCSK @ChennaiIPL

After ending the last season in the 2nd last position in the points table, questions were raised.
The only faith fans had is with the words from the skipper

"Definitely, I will be working hard to come back strong for next year's IPL"

The mini auction went okayish with some unexpected buys and literally fans were two minded on why did they go for these people. But with all the experience we have with MS, we should better know not to judge his decisions. Not to forget how injuries struck the camp before hand

We lost few players to injury before even the season started and as usual the replacement calls werent happy among the fans in get go. Plus the major question that was looming everyone's mind was that "Is this MS's last IPL season"?

With all the speculations around, the IPL2023 began with the season opener of CSK vs GT in Ahmedabad
The stakes were high since 1.10lakh people came to see the main man and it did not take long for fans to get into the hype. It had beautiful memories in the opening ceremony

The match however did not go the CSK way. Having lost the toss and put on to bat, CSK managed to score only 178,thanks to Rutu's brilliant 92 and MS's quick cameo of 14, others completely looked out of touch. Inreturn we did try to defend till 19th,but were always short of runs

With not the ideal start which CSK expected to kick of the comeback, people did not lose hope yet on the team since it was still a very good first game and not something which csk completely failed in all departments. Carrying the positives, we marched to anbuden for our 2nd

Returing to the den after 4yrs, it had nothing short of a sweetness. Having to bat first vs LSG, this time we put a huge score of 217,credits to excellent hitting of all the batters and with some good piece of bowling by our spinners, we clinched our first victory by 12runs

With the win, we then moved to Wankade to face our arch rivals MI. After a brilliant powerplay by MI batting first, csk spinners enforced the spin choke brilliantly and pulled back things to held them under a below par score of 157 and we chased them in 18overs for 2nd Win

With b-b wins and 4points, csk were expecting to get a hatrick w in den vs RR. But things went south. Having opt to bowl in a gripping wicket & some poor fielding costed us to chase a mamoth 176. We did try our best to chase, but initial dots costed us and missed by 3 runs

With 2W 2L, we moved to banglore to take on RCB. Batting first, we scored a good total of 226.But the brilliance of Faf,Maxi tried to pull the game out of our hands but some good back end bowling helped us get back into game. This is the first apperance of baby slinga, w by 8runs

We were back to den to take on SRH. Having to bowl first,bowlers stepped up big time and we reduced them to below par total of 134 and chased them back in 18.4 overs to clinch our 4th victory in 6games.Jaddu bagged his 2nd POTM for his superb bowling

We then moved to Eden to take on KKR.Owing to the brilliance of Jinx,conway,dube we put a mamoth 235 total batting first and restricted KKR to 186 thereby clinching a 49run victory. This was 2nd time jinx showed his masterclass after the MI innings

So at halfway stage, it looked like a perfect fairy tale season for MS with sealing 5wins out 7 and comfortably sitting on the top of the table with 10points equalling RR with same number of points. And in every match, Ms kept giving mixed signals on farewell,thanking etc

When everyone thought its going to be a easy playoff for CSK with many home games left still,we faced RR in jaipur and had to face a defeat of 32 runs in which we were completely outdone by RR batting. Chasing 203, we were never really in the game owing to too many dot balls

Things didn'tany better as even though we put a good total of 200 in a day game vs PBKS with devon missing a well deserved 100 & due to some poor efforts in the bowling we failed to defend 70+ runs in the death in chepauk and taking 4th defeat. we were stuck now in 10

To make things worse, we restricted LSG to below part total at their home, but a rain interruption made sure that game is washed out with 1 point shared. Things just got tightned up here with 11 points after 10games.Playoff spot was not at ease anymore with just 4games left

In our 11the game MI visited den where they have good record against us and it was important for us to win this. Won the crucial toss and decided to bowl, restricted them again to less than 140 and bagged the 2 points. Pathirana opened his POTM account

Next vs DC in same den, we played good cricket on a gripping wicket to get 167 and bowled really well to defend it.Deepak chahar gave b-b good performances after his return from injury. Jadeja sealed his 3rd POTM award for his brilliant bowling.

With 15points and 2 more games to go, Top2 looked easier with one match left in Den. But as a twist, we played our season's worst game vs KKR that day and scored a well below par total choosing to bat first. Though DC took 3 wickets in PP, 145 was never enough to defend

This meant that we need to win our last league vs DC with huge margin so we get that NRR up as well. With great batting of Rutu,Devon,Dube we scored mamoth 220+ and we had a huge win of 77runs. This meant that we will face GT in chepauk for Qualifier 1

Having a poor H-H record vs GT and put to bat first on a sticky wicket, we made good score of 172 including Rutu's 50 and crucial other contributions. With no dew around, the spinners came into play, restricted GT and qualified into the finals for 10th time

Rutu was once again the man of the match in the important game for us for his wonderful 50+ score though jaddu was equally deserved as he was good with the bat and bowl that day with some crucial wickets

The grand finale day arrived on May 28th. It was GT once again who came into the finals after beating the winners of Eliminator MI in the qualifier2 comfortably. With expectations sky rocketed, rain played a big spoil sport on the night of the final and the game moved to the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Fans were affected by this hugely due to lack of food,rain,accomodation,returns but the love for their idol never stopped them from coming back the next day

The day arrived and with the rain threat still looming MS won the toss and chose a bold decision to chase it even though batting first and runs on the board would be ideal for a final.
To make things worser, started with a catch drop of gill and some poor fielding and brilliant… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

There was an unwanted long delay in the name of closing ceremony which then turned to a brief delay when rain interrupted again having CSK played only 3 balls with 4 runs on the board. Due to the side pitch being drenched in rain, it caused a huge delay of 2hrs+ and after… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

A final that was supposed to start on 28th, extended to 29th and finally at 12.10AM on 30th may CSK resumed the chase. With requiring almost 12 runs every over there was no place to settle up. Dev was quick to captilise the 4 over powerplay and rutu along with him made sure the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

But noor's economical overs were being neatly compensated by Dube and Rahane as they made sure other bowlers are targeted nicely before the latter perished to a slow ball by mohit
At 11 over stage we were in need of 53 odd runs and rayudu stepped in. In the 12th over final 2… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The equation reduced to 38 off 3 and with rayudu smoking 6,4,6 in the next 3 balls, the the equation came well under control of 22 off 15 but mohit once again struck back with double blow of Rayudu and Dhoni's wicket for a 0. The crowd went dead silent but the game was still open… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

With 21 needed of 12, shami bowled a excellent over of just 8runs which meant we need to get 13 of the last over from Mohit. To GT's good, he did start the over really well by nailing 4 proper yorkers with CSK managing only 3 runs of the 4 balls. With 10 required of 2 the camera… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

GT was way relaxed but that when things changed. Nehra sent a substitute running in and hardik went to mohit to have a chat for few min is what i believe which disrupted his momentum a bit in csk's favour. GT dugout was still confident that the game was sealed.

But cricket is a funny game, the game is not over till its over and thats exactly when Jaddu smoked one right back to the long on region and brought the equation to 4 of 1. We all know how bad luck has been for MS and CSK in terms of such close games

The situation in dugout was pretty much in the state of accepting a close defeat once again but one more err in the line from Mohit ensured that jaddu hit it to left of short fine for a 4. It was one hell of a chase at that point when the entire crowd started to erupt the chants

What should have been a GT home, turned to be a feast for CSK in terms for support. After hitting the 4, when the entire team were running towards jaddu to celebrate, he chose to ran towards MS who just lifted jaddu and hugged him, went it to tears with closed eyes which is new

CSK did the unthinkable,chased 171 in 15overs in a grand finale and wrote a comeback for ages after the horrid 2022 . When none of them gave them a chance, this man MS marshelled his troops one more time for the 5th title in Tata IPL for CSK. It was a magnificent team effort

On 30th May 2023, CSK became the most consistent team, most successful team and most dominant team of IPL with 12playoffs,10finals,5trophies in the 14 seasons they have played and have the highest win percentage overall

They just proved the world of experts one more time and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Mahi bhai added one more trophy to his cabinet and now leading the charts with 5 IPL, 2CLT20, 1WC in T20 tournaments

Every single one of them in the CSK dedicated the trophy to MS and expressed how much he meant to the franchise but for fans the icing on the cake was always his words on his retirement. MS did not fail the fans to give them hope for one more time

MS at presentation:
"The easy… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Devon won one more POTM and its in the important night of the final. Proved his worth to all those who doubted him

Dube might have not won any POTM this season, but he has been a revelation this season. There are too many games where he single handedly brought the team out of middle order hiccups. Our six hitting machine he was this season

Tushar is one more person who might have not won any POTM as well but has been really unlucky interms of catches and he would have been much more economical and a purple cap holder had they been heldon. Still he has been a revelation and bearing few matches, he has done equally… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…