Sam Curran brought much-needed firepower to what has been an otherwise lacklustre IPL 2025 for Chennai Super Kings, smashing a match-saving 88 off 47 balls — the team’s highest individual score this season — against Punjab Kings on April 30.
After reaching his half-century in just 31 balls, Curran celebrated with a fiery phone-call gesture directed at the CSK dugout, symbolising the urgency and importance of his knock in a must-win contest.
IPL 2025, CSK vs PBKS: Updates
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Prior to this clash, the England all-rounder had played only three matches for CSK and scored just 21 runs. But under pressure at Chepauk, he stepped up when it mattered most, anchoring the innings in a crucial do-or-die game that kept Chennai’s faint playoff hopes alive.
Sent in to bat first, CSK lost their young opening pair — Shaik Rasheed and Ayush Mhatre — early. Curran entered at No. 3 and steadied the innings, first with support from Ravindra Jadeja, then with a 78-run partnership alongside Dewald Brevis that gave CSK a strong foundation.
With the scoreboard reading 172/5 at the end of the 18th over, Chennai looked set to breach the 200-run mark. But following Curran’s dismissal, the innings unravelled. PBKS spinner Yuzvendra Chahal ran through the tail with his second IPL hat-trick, bundling CSK out for 190 with four balls to spare — a collapse that again underlined Chennai’s inconsistency this season.
