CSK-GT final moved to Monday as rain plays spoilsport
DUE to persistent rain in Ahmedabad, the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 between four-time winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) which was scheduled to be played on Sunday, will now take place on Monday at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Indian Premier League on Sunday took to Twitter and announced that the final has been moved to the reserve day on May 29.
“The #Final of the #TATAIPL 2023 has been moved to the reserve day on 29th May - 7:30 PM IST at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Physical tickets for today will be valid tomorrow. We request you to keep the tickets safe & intact,” IPL tweeted.
This is the first time in IPL history that a summit clash has moved to a reserve day. The postponement of the match was a shocker for many excited fans who were in the stadium as well as those who were waiting for the summit clash in their homes. Around 11 PM IPL made the official announcement and ended many speculations.
As the rain was persistent in was no clarity over the start time for the all-important IPL 2023 final between MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings and Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans.
Earlier, CSK and GT’s official Twitter handle reported, no overs would be lost if the game starts by 9:40 PM local time. The match could be pushed to a reserve day on Monday if even a five-over game is not possible by the cut-off time of 12:26 AM local time. The cut-off time for the start of Super Over is 12:56 AM.
The ground personnel was quick to cover the middle with two distinct layers of sheets, as well as the regions of run-ups for fast bowlers, roughly half an hour before the toss time. However, the severity of the downpour quickly increased, coupled with thunder and lightning, and the fans who had gathered in great numbers were compelled to seek shelter and withdraw into the stands.
Talking about the finalists, defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) and four-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will lock horns in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday, making this GT’s second successive final and CSK’s 10th, the most by any time in league’s history.
Hardik Pandya-led GT will be looking forward to defending the title that they had bagged in their debut season back in 2022.
CSK will be hoping to clinch their fifth title and perhaps give a memorable farewell to skipper MS Dhoni, as this could be his last season with the Yellow franchise as speculated by many fans since the start of the tournament.
The defending champions have a home-ground advantage. The biggest positive for them this year has been the form of Shubman Gill at the top. Gill has been on a rampage this year, having stitched many solid opening stands with Wriddhiman Saha. Gill currently holds the Orange Cap in IPL 2023. He has scored 851 runs in 16 matches at an average of 60.78, with three centuries and four fifties. His best score is 129. His runs have come at a strike rate of 156.43.
Gill’s wicket will be a prized one for CSK and the batter will hope to hit big one last time this season and try overtaking Virat Kohli’s tally of 973 runs in a single season, which was back in 2016.
The rest of the GT batters are in fine form, though their numbers are dwarf-like in comparison to Gill. Saha (317 runs), skipper Pandya (325 runs), David Miller (259 runs), Vijay Shankar (301 runs), Sai Sudarshan (266 runs) are capable of helping the team to a competitive total even if Gill fails.