At the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday night, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated the Chennai Super Kings by a commanding six wickets to round off their IPL 2025 campaign. Vaibhav Suryavanshi, a 14-year-old wonder, led the chase with a 57-run performance, continuing his incredible rookie season with yet another outstanding knock.
Anshul Kamboj caused RR to lose Yashasvi Jaiswal early for 36 while chasing 188. However, Suryavanshi and captain Sanju Samson (41), who combined for 98 runs, steadied the pursuit. But both fell quickly after each other, Suryavanshi to a mistimed smash and Samson to a carrom ball from Ravi Ashwin.
From there, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel took control. With 17 balls remaining, Jurel completed the chase in spectacular fashion by hitting 31 off just 12 balls, including a six and four in the 17th over.
Sanju Samson had previously chosen to bowl first. CSK faced early difficulties in their innings as they lost Urvil Patel and Devon Conway on the powerplay. The innings was stabilised by Ayush Mhatre (43) and Dewald Brevis (42) but CSK was unable to completely capitalise. CSK was held to 187/8 by Akash Madhwal’s strong performance in the final overs. The Chennai Super Kings are probably going to finish last in the IPL for the first time after this loss.
Talking Points
1. Yudhvir Singh-Akash Madhwal dismantle CSK batters:
Rajasthan Royals’ pace duo Yudhvir Singh Charak and Akash Madhwal shared six wickets between them to dismantle the CSK batting lineup. Charak made an impact early, removing Devon Conway and Urvil Patel in the second over before sending Ravindra Jadeja back in the seventh, finishing with a career-best 3/47. While Charak’s powerplay spell put CSK backfoot, Madhwal shined in the death overs. Though he started with an underwhelming over, he bounced back brilliantly to remove Dewald Brevis and dismiss the dangerous duo of Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni in the final over, ending with figures of 3/29.
2. Young Vaibhav Suryavanshi shines once again:
RR’s young batting prodigy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, once again produced a scintillating knock to guide RR home in their final league game of the season. The southpaw’s 33-ball 57 saw him lace his innings with four boundaries and four sixes. His 98-run stand with Sanju Samson put the Royals in the driving seat and eventually saw them clinch a comfortable win.
3. Rajasthan Royals finish on high
Despite being eliminated from the playoffs race early on, RR made sure to finish their IPL 2025 season on a high, as they clinched their fourth win of the season. On the other hand, CSK is still holding the 10th spot and might end their season in the same position, despite them having a game left.
Who Said What?
MS Dhoni, CSK (Losing Captain):
It was a good total, Brevis’ innings was really nice, taking risks, that’s the phase we want to improve … the run rate was up but we lost one or tweo more wickets at the start. Kamboj is good, he gets a lot of movement, his balls hit you harder than what you might expect, he’s good … he’s done well, bowling three overs in the powerplay is tough.
(On younger players) They have to try for the consistency, but if you are looking for 200-plus strike rate then consistency is hard to get …. they have the ability to hit sixes at any stage … don’t take pressure, when the expectations rise … learn from senior players and coaching staff .. it’s about reading the game … this would be my advice to all the youngsters wo have done well.
Sanju Samson, RR (Winning Captain):
It feels good, to be honest we were thinking about setting a target but I felt there’s no hiding in this game, let’s go out and chase it and prove a point. We have a young bowling attack, missing Jofra, Sandeep Sharma … lots of promise for the future. Madhwal did not play a lot of games, he has been working closely with Shane Bond, doing a lot of spot bowling, and he has got the results now.
Very happy for him … the margins of error are so less it’s hard to see why we had such a bad season, we will sit down after a couple of weeks to review what went wrong and come back stronger … I don’t have words for him (Suryavanshi) … today when the middle overs were going on, he was smart in picking his options, it’s a stunning combination, having that potential and game awareness.
Yashasvi Jaiswal 36 (19):
It was pretty good, we were trying our best and I really enjoyed it. There has been few injuries with the team, Sanju bhai came back after a few games and it was a good game for us, we will take the confidence going forward. (on Suryavanshi) He played really well, he played amazingly today, we have seen how he has been playing throughout the tournament. (on the bowlers) They have bowled pretty well, we have a clear plan where we have to bowl. I was telling them whatever plans you have, to go with a clear head and do it.