Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
In the match 57th of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) didn’t start well with the ball against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), conceding 67 runs while taking only one wicket at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The worst moment for CSK happened when Matheesha Pathirana dropped the catch of KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane, giving the in-form batter an opportunity to score a substantial innings once again.
The drop catch happened on the last ball of the fourth over from Anshul Kamboj, which was a length delivery, but Ajinkya Rahane could only hit the pick-up pull high in the air on the deep square leg boundary, where Matheesha Pathirana was stationed. The Sri Lankan pacer misjudged the high ball, and by the time he tried to rectify his mistake, trying to reach out in front to grab hold of it, only for it to spill out of his hands.
Ajinkya Rahane took advantage of the drop catch, reaching 29 runs in just 14 balls with four fours and one six at the end of the power play stage. The veteran got tied down a touch while playing against the spinners in the middle overs, but still, he still scored 48 runs in 33 balls with four fours and two six before mistiming the reverse sweep on the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja, straight to the backward point fielder Devon Conway.
Here are some of the fan reactions to Pathirana’s drop catch and CSK’s poor start with the ball against KKR:
Below are the playing XIs of CSK and KKR for the match 57th of the IPL 2025:
CSK: Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Devon Conway, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, R Ashwin, MS Dhoni (c)/(wk), Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana
Impact players list: Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda, Jamie Overton, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh
KKR: Sunil Narine, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Moeen Ali, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy
Impact players list: Anrich Nortje, Mayank Markande, Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia
