7 Reasons behind Chennai Super Kings' phenomenal success in IPL across seasons

5. Different heroes for different matches

CSK had different heroes for different stages

CSK found different heroes for different matches. CSK never depended on one or two players and different players stood up for the team on different occasions for different challenges.

A review of the last IPL season would prove the above point.

1. In the first match of the season against Mumbai Indians, it was Bravo who came to the party with an astonishing inning of 68 from 30 balls. After Bravo’s heroics, it was the turn of the injured Kedar Jadhav to finish off the match in style standing on one leg.

2. In CSK’s second match against KKR at Chennai, it was Sam Billings turn to play a big hand for a winning cause by scoring 56 off 23 balls. It was left to Bravo and Jadeja to hit a couple of sixes to reach the target in the last over.

3. Against King XI, Dhoni, struggling from an injury, very nearly won the match for his team with a brilliant 79 off 44 balls. In the end, CSK lost the match by 4 runs.

4. Shane Watson and Suresh Raina took care of Rajasthan Royals. Against RCB, Rayudu and Dhoni made light work of a difficult target of 205.

5. In their return match against RCB, Jadeja and Harbhajan combined to bundle out RCB for 127. Rayadu scored his first IPL hundred to knock SRH out.

6. In their last league match against Kings XI Punjab, Suresh Raina finally came to the party with an unbeaten 61 and along with the relatively unknown Deepak Chahar(39) took his team home. Before that, it was Lungi Ngidi’s 4 wicket haul which restricted Punjab to 153.

7. In qualifier 1 against SRH, Faf Du Plessis who had a quiet season until then played his best IPL innings and remained not out on 67 in his team’s 2 wicket win.

8. In the grand final, it was Shane Watson all the way. From 0 off 10 balls, Watson blasted 117 runs in the next 47 balls to enable CSK to its third title win.

The ability of different CSK players to rise to different occasions is one of the main reasons for CSK’s success story.