Irfan Pathan’s analysis of the IPL 2023 final, in which CSK overcame GT in a rain-delayed game, didn’t exactly go over well on Twitter.
On Monday night, the Chennai Super Kings defeated Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League championship game. At the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the MS Dhoni-led team defeated the 2022 champions by a margin of five wickets to win their fifth IPL championship. On Monday, play was stopped due to rain, cutting CSK’s run chase by five overs. The team had barely batted three deliveries when the stoppage occurred.
Irfan Pathan, a former Indian bowler, claimed that the 15-over format favoured CSK because no bowler for the Gujarat Titans had the four-over quota anymore.
“In yesterday’s rain-shortened final, CSK began batting with Shami. Losing one of their normal four overs each, Rasid and Mohit. The top three wicket-takers in the league were thus denied 18 balls and no wickets. CSK has definitely benefited from it, remarked Pathan on his official Twitter account.
However, Pathan’s tweet drew criticism from CSK supporters, who claimed that the Super Kings batted themselves out of a lifeless to chase the 171-run total in 15 overs.
Earlier, when Gujarat Titans needed to score 13 runs to win in the last over, CSK only managed three runs off the first four balls. Then, Ravindra Jadeja crushed Mohit Sharma for a six and a four off the final two deliveries to figuratively take the Cup from Gujarat.
“They claim that there are no fairy tales in sports, but today’s was an excellent one. After Chennai defeated Gujarat Titans in the IPL final, head coach Stephen Fleming addressed the media. “It has been a bit difficult 18 months where, as the captaincy was difficult, the injury was difficult, it took a bit of time from out of the game for him to come back and be reintegrated into the Test side, and then re-integrate into CSK,” Fleming said.
In fact, Fleming had already declared defeat in his mind before Mohit’s final two deliveries were bowled and the Jadeja turn the game around.
“It is truly heartbreaking that we lost the championship game on the very last ball. When Jaddu hit one for six, I was preparing for yet another heartbreak, but I wasn’t sure if there would also be more joy.
