CSK crash and burn in Ahmedabad, end IPL 2026 with a loss of 89 runs on GT

Brief Score: Gujarat Titans (229 for four in 20 overs) beat Chennai Super Kings (140 all-out in 13.4 overs) by 89 runs in Ahmedabad.

Chennai Super Kings’ IPL 2026 campaign ended in smoke as Gujarat Titans condemned them to an 89-run defeat in Ahmedabad on Thursday, May 21. With the loss, CSK ended the season with just 12 points from 14 matches and was officially eliminated from the tournament. This was the third year in a row that Chennai finished in the top four and did not play in the playoffs.

For Gujarat, the win means they have boosted their chances of playing Qualifier 1 after dominating Chennai in all three departments. Sai Sudharsan 84, Shubman Gill 64 and Jos Buttler’s explosive 57 helped them post 229 runs in the first innings to secure the victory.

In reply, Chennai were bundled out for 140 runs in 13.4 overs, with Shivam Dube the only batsman to get on track.

DID CSK CONDUCT UNNECESSARY EXPERIMENTS?

When the team sheets were released on Thursday, CSK seemed to have decided to make a lot of changes as their season is on the line. It’s times like these that you usually sit down and use your tried and true recipe. But they decided to field Prashant Veer and Akeal Hosein and brought back Matt Short and Gurjapneet Singh.

Ruturaj said the decision came down to match combinations and one expected short to be used as a bowling option. However, the Australian all-rounder never got the chance to step in and bowl.

Gill and Sudharsan have fond memories of facing CSK in Ahmedabad as the duo scored hundreds in 210 runs in 2024. And as they started, it looked like Chennai was in for a moment of deja vu.

The duo got off to a flying start that ended up hurting CSK in more ways than one. They soon lost Sanju Samson to a finger injury and he was out of action. Guidance from behind the stumps seemed to be lacking as the Chennai bowlers struggled to find some inspiration on a track that looked like a belter.

As a result, Gill and Sudharsan amassed 62 runs in the powerplay. With a spin partner absent, Noor Ahmad was looking to return to his former stomping grounds when Gill welcomed him with a six.

The only thing the GT skipper has done this season is to be more aggressive in his approach and put the Chennai bowlers to the sword.

He reached his fifty with a six off Noor and in 23 balls. Sudharsan was not far behind when it came to hitting big and took on Anhsul Kamboj who looked like he was reeling from the shock he received in Lucknow.

Sudharsan reached his fifty in 35 balls, joining the elite list of batsmen to make it five consecutive fifties in the IPL. There seemed to be no rush from the GT batsmen. It looked calm, calculated and without any chaos.

But Gill’s innings ended in the 13th over and that gave Sudharsan and Buttler the license to kill.

The duo ensured that Noor conceded 22 runs in the third over and the Afghan spinner was not called back to bowl another. But that left the rest of the CSK pacers at the mercy of the onslaught.

They conceded 78 runs in the last six games. Kamboj’s time in the IPL went from bad to worse as he claimed the unwanted record of hitting the most sixes in a single edition of the IPL with 34 maximums next to his name.

Once Buttler also reached his fifty to take the total to 230, CSK seemed to have missed a trick as they didn’t have another spinner in the mix.

– The end

Published on:

21 May 2026 23:14 IST

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