IPL Stats: Top 5 Records by Chennai Super Kings in the history of IPL
Chennai Super Kings are arguably the most popular and successful IPL team across all seasons. They are the only team to have reached the playoff stages of all IPL seasons in which they have been a part of. Out of the 9 seasons of IPL participation, CSK have reached the finals on seven occasions and won the title thrice.
In this article, let us revisit the top 5 records, both of the team and the individual players, created by CSK in the IPL history.
#5 Lowest ever score defended in IPL - CSK VS Kings XI Punjab, IPL 2009
CSK hold the record for successfully defending the lowest ever IPL score. It was in the 54th match of the 2009 season against Kings XI Punjab at Durban. Before the start of this match, CSK has already qualified for the playoffs, while Kings XI Punjab were out of it.
The 2009 season of IPL was played in South Africa. At Durban, on a bowler-friendly pitch, CSK surprisingly elected to bat. They had a decent start when they reached 50/1 in 5.4 overs. But things started to worsen for them with the introduction of Sreesanth into the attack.
Sreesanth got rid of Badrinath and Dhoni in one over, and that was just the beginning as in no time, CSK were reduced to a mere 116 for 9 in 20 overs. Kings XI had batsmen of the caliber of Yuvraj Singh and Kumar Sangakkara in their ranks. But CSK had two good spinners - Muttiah Muralitharan and R Ashwin.
Muralitharan, Ashwin and Suresh Raina took two wickets each as Kings XI lost half their side for 59 runs. The three CSK spinners bowled 12 overs and took 6 wickets while conceding just 38 runs. In the end, Kings XI were restricted to 92 for 8 in 20 overs. CSK won that low scoring match by a healthy margin of 24 runs. For his spell of 4-0-8-2, Muralitharan was adjudged the player of the match.
CSK successfully defended a score of 116 in that match at Durban which still remains the lowest total ever defended by a team in IPL history.