3 Reasons Why CSG Lost to DD in the Qualifier 2 Match of TNPL 2025

At the 16th over of their innings, the Chepauk Super Gillies fans would have thought they were halfway to Chennai with Baba Aparajith and Narayan Jagadeesan at the crease at 155/2, boundaries flowing freely. Their path to a final looked locked, sealed, and delivered. However, as cricket always seems to do, it had alternative ideas. A power total of 178 started to look a couple of runs light, and before long, Vimal Khumar walked to the crease with what seemed to be a bat that was on fire, ripped up the script, and left the Super Gillies campaign in tatters. So, what contributed to the men’s yellow and blue meltdown? Let’s analyze what unfolded.

A Shocking Late-Innings Collapse

 As mentioned earlier, let’s now dissect the collapse that they had most likely not prepared for. 155/2 off 16 overs, I mean you would reckon 200 at least. It turned into a string of unlucky events instead. Upon arrival, Vijay Shankar takes in the scene, holds back, and immediately gives away a wicket on his opening ball. Jagadeesan fell 3 balls later, and having disturbed the innocent bowlers with so much chaos, you can only imagine he was racing to catch a plane. The final overs saw Chepauk unravel, losing 5 wickets for a mere 23 runs.

You could have slammed the emergency brake of a bullet train here. Swapnil Singh and S Dinesh Raj just couldn’t find the accelerator, and what seemed like an imposing score suddenly miraculously became a (sensible) score. Dindigul bowled well at the death, but deservedly so, given Chepauk’s entire lineup had imploded and put the Dindigul bowlers in a state of complete panic from the get-go.

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Vimal Khumar—The Human Wildfire

Now the storm is named Vimal Khumar. If Chepauk thought the game was back in the blue at 15overs with Baba Indrajith out, they hadn’t had a look at who was next. When it came to momentum, Vimal not only swung it – he lit it. His breathtaking 65 off 30 was part poetry, part demolition. Five fours, five sixes, and a strike rate of 216 – this was not a counterattack, it was blitzkrieg. Even with wickets tumbling around him, he kept his eyes locked on the target and shredded Chepauk’s bowling attack as if it were tissue. At the time he was out with one over to go, the job was done. The match wasn’t flipped – it had somersaulted.

Toothless Bowling & Fielding Letdowns

Let’s discuss what should be evident: Chepauk’s bowling and fielding. Chepauk dropped their lines/lengths and raised their shoulders to start. Abhishek Tanwar went for 30 runs in two overs. Rohith Suthar suddenly piled up a burly 38 runs in two overs, full tosses like Diwali gifts, and the Dragons had many Ms- there was more airy and unpredictable to the bowlers.

The most disfiguring was when they bowled well, they could not affect the wicket anyway; an astute LBW from Swapnil to take out Ashwin, or Vijay Suthar’s generally tight spell was never long enough, or didn’t take their turn when the rest of the unit got bled like a sieve. Included in that total were two run-outs Chepauk suffered early, but you were seeing the numbers, chaos through pressure!

In the end, Chepauk Super Gillies threw the match they were clearly in control of, through a choke to close the last five overs, a volcanic knock from Vimal, and a bowling unit loose as goose, The Dindigul Dragons roar into the final, while the Chepauk Super Gillies are left pondering how their near perfect script became a heartbreaking thriller.