Chennai Super Kings were 92 for 7 after 15 overs at the Wankhede Stadium on 22 May 2018, chasing 140 in the first Qualifier of their comeback season, and they still reached the final with five balls to spare. The man who got them there opened the batting, watched seven partners come and go, and finished on 67 not out from 42 balls. Faf du Plessis's innings is one of the most complete examples of a batter running a T20 chase single-handed, and it came in only his fifth appearance of the 2018 season.
The context made it bigger. Chennai Super Kings had returned in 2018 after a two-year suspension, and had lost their home base to Pune after one match in Chennai. Sunrisers Hyderabad, led by Kane Williamson after David Warner's ban, had topped the 2018 league table on net run rate, both sides finishing on 18 points. On 22 May 2018 the two best teams of the season met for a direct ticket to the final, and the lower-scoring game turned out to be the better one.
The Night Du Plessis Carried the Chase
Sunrisers' innings: 139 built from the wreckage
The first ball set the tone. Deepak Chahar bowled Shikhar Dhawan with it, and by the end of the powerplay Sunrisers were 47 for 4. Williamson made 24 from 15 balls before he was caught by MS Dhoni off Shardul Thakur; Shreevats Goswami fell caught-and-bowled to Lungi Ngidi for 12; Shakib Al Hasan was caught behind off Dwayne Bravo for 12.
The middle overs in 2018 were where Chennai strangled sides, and Qualifier 1 was a textbook case. Between overs 7 and 15 Sunrisers scored 41 runs. Ravindra Jadeja bowled four overs for 13 and took a return catch from Manish Pandey, who made 8 from 16 balls. Yusuf Pathan ground out 24 from 29 before Bravo caught and bowled him off the last ball of the 15th over. Sunrisers were 88 for 6.
Then Carlos Brathwaite arrived. He took Thakur for 17 in the 18th over, including two sixes, and 20 in the 20th, finishing on 43 not out from 29 balls with four sixes. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was run out off the final ball. The last five overs produced 51 runs, and 139 for 7 looked a respectable total on a surface where the ball had gripped all evening.
The toss and the surface
Dhoni's side won the toss and chose to field, as they would again in the final at the same ground five days later. Chasing at the Wankhede was the obvious call: the evening dew helps batting second, and Chennai's attack of Chahar, Ngidi, Thakur, Bravo and Jadeja was built to squeeze a total rather than defend one. Both 2018 playoff games Chennai played at the Wankhede followed that plan, and both ended in a successful chase. On 22 May the plan worked with the ball and almost failed with the bat.
The collapse: 39 for 4, then 92 for 7
Bhuvneshwar opened with a one-run over and removed Shane Watson, caught behind by Goswami for a five-ball duck. Watson finished IPL 2018 with 555 runs; on 22 May he did not score. Suresh Raina hit four boundaries in a 13-ball 22, then Siddarth Kaul bowled him and Ambati Rayudu with successive deliveries in the fourth over. Rayudu, Chennai's leading run-scorer in 2018 with 602, fell first ball. Chennai were 24 for 3.
Rashid Khan then bowled Dhoni for 9 from 18 balls at 39 for 4 in the eighth over, and later had Bravo caught by Dhawan for 7. Sandeep Sharma took a return catch from Jadeja and had Chahar caught by Brathwaite after a 6-ball 10. At the end of the 15th over Chennai were 92 for 7, needing 48 from 30 balls.
The squeeze: Rashid's 16th over
Rashid's last over was the moment Sunrisers should have won the game. He bowled to du Plessis twice (a dot and a single), then sent four straight dots past Harbhajan Singh. One run from the over. Rashid finished with 4-0-11-2, the most economical spell of the night. Kaul's 17th went for four, and Chennai stood at 97 for 7: 43 needed from 18 balls, a required rate of 14.33, with three wickets left and the last recognised batter on strike.
The finish: 20, 17, six
Williamson gave the 18th over to Brathwaite, whose first two overs had cost 11. Harbhajan took a single, and du Plessis hit four, six, four. Harbhajan was run out in the same over, ending on 2 from 9, but du Plessis kept the strike and hit another four from the final ball. The over cost 20, and Chennai needed 23 from 12.
Thakur, who had conceded 50 from his four overs with the ball, came in at No. 10 and hit Kaul for two fours from his first two balls. He added another four from the last ball of the over, finishing on 15 not out from 5 balls, and the 19th over cost 17. Six were needed from the final over. Du Plessis hit Bhuvneshwar's first ball for six. Chennai won by two wickets with five balls to spare and went straight to the final.
The Numbers Behind the Night
The two scorecards tell the story of a chase that was lost for 17 overs and won in seven balls.
| Player | Team | Figures | What it meant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faf du Plessis | CSK | 67* (42), 5×4, 4×6 | Carried the bat through the chase; Player of the Match |
| Carlos Brathwaite | SRH | 43* (29), 4×6 | Took SRH from 88/6 to 139/7 |
| Rashid Khan | SRH | 4-0-11-2 | Bowled Dhoni; one-run 16th over |
| Siddarth Kaul | SRH | 4-0-32-2 | Raina and Rayudu off successive balls |
| Sandeep Sharma | SRH | 3-0-30-2 | Removed Jadeja and Chahar |
| Ravindra Jadeja | CSK | 4-0-13-1 | Choked the middle overs |
| Dwayne Bravo | CSK | 4-0-25-2 | Shakib and Yusuf Pathan |
| Shardul Thakur | CSK | 4-0-50-1, then 15* (5) | Expensive with the ball, decisive with the bat |
The phase-by-phase comparison shows how one-sided the game was until the 18th over.
| Phase | SRH (1st innings) | CSK (chase) |
|---|---|---|
| Powerplay (overs 1–6) | 47/4 | 33/3 |
| Middle (overs 7–15) | 41/2 → 88/6 | 59/4 → 92/7 |
| Overs 16–17 | 10/0 → 98/6 | 5/0 → 97/7 |
| Overs 18–20 | 41/1 → 139/7 | 43/1 in 7 balls → 140/8 |
After 17 overs Chennai trailed Sunrisers' position at the same stage by just one run, but Sunrisers had four wickets in hand and Chennai had three. Of the last 43 runs, du Plessis made 26 from seven balls and Thakur 15 from five.
A season of four meetings
Qualifier 1 was the third of four games between these sides in IPL 2018, and Chennai won all four.
| Date (2018) | Stage | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 22 April | League | CSK won by 4 runs |
| 13 May | League | CSK won by 8 wickets |
| 22 May | Qualifier 1 | CSK won by 2 wickets |
| 27 May | Final | CSK won by 8 wickets |
Across the 2013–2025 seasons the fixture stands at 23 meetings, with Chennai winning 16 and Sunrisers 7. The 2018 sweep accounts for a quarter of Chennai's wins.
Legacy Impact: What 22 May 2018 Means Now
Losing Qualifier 1 did not end Sunrisers' season. They beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 14 runs in Qualifier 2 at Eden Gardens on 25 May 2018, Rashid named Player of the Match, and met Chennai again at the Wankhede on 27 May. That final belonged to Watson, whose unbeaten 117 won Chennai a third title by eight wickets, as told in our reconstruction of the 2018 final. The comeback season had opened at the same ground with a one-wicket win over Mumbai Indians, covered in the 2018 Wankhede opener. Without du Plessis on 22 May, the Watson final might not have happened in that form.
The bowling numbers explain why Sunrisers still reached the final. Kaul and Rashid each took 21 wickets in IPL 2018, joint second behind Andrew Tye's 24. Williamson won the Orange Cap with 735 runs. On 22 May 2018 they had the game won for 17 overs.
Several players from that night are in IPL 2026 squads in different colours. Dhoni remains at Chennai. Rashid is at Gujarat Titans, Bhuvneshwar at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and Sandeep Sharma and Jadeja at Rajasthan Royals. Chahar and Thakur, who won that game with Chennai, are both at Mumbai Indians. Du Plessis, Williamson, Watson, Raina, Rayudu, Bravo and Harbhajan are no longer part of the IPL.
CricMind's Oracle reads a chase like this one ball at a time, which is why it is a useful example. The meso engine weights the required rate against wickets in hand and the partnership, and at 97 for 7 needing 14.33 an over every one of those inputs pointed to Sunrisers. The micro layer is built for the moments that break that read, such as a 20-run over, and a model that cannot move quickly would still have Sunrisers ahead when du Plessis hit Bhuvneshwar for six. You can see how its locked calls have fared on the Oracle predictions page and its biggest misses on the upsets page.
Three Takeaways
- One set batter beats a deep lower order. Du Plessis faced 42 of Chennai's 115 legal balls, more than a third, and scored nearly half their runs. Chennai lost seven wickets around him and still won, because he never let the required rate fully get away from the last over.
- Rashid's 4-0-11-2 shows the limits of one great spell. The 16th over left Chennai needing 43 from 18, yet Sunrisers still lost. In a 20-over game a team needs the other bowlers to survive the death overs as well.
- The Brathwaite over was the gamble that decided the game. Brathwaite had conceded 11 runs from two overs before the 18th. Williamson used him as a death bowler at the moment Chennai had their last specialist batter on strike, and that over went for 20.
FAQ
Who won IPL 2018 Qualifier 1?
Chennai Super Kings beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by two wickets at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on 22 May 2018. Chasing 140, they reached 140 for 8 with five balls remaining.
How many runs did Faf du Plessis score in the 2018 Qualifier 1?
Du Plessis made 67 not out from 42 balls, with five fours and four sixes. He opened the batting, was still there at the end, and was named Player of the Match.
What did CSK need from the last three overs?
Chennai were 97 for 7 after 17 overs and needed 43 from 18 balls. They scored 20 off Carlos Brathwaite in the 18th, 17 off Siddarth Kaul in the 19th and won with a six from the first ball of the 20th, bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
What were Rashid Khan's figures in the 2018 Qualifier 1?
Rashid took 2 for 11 in four overs, bowling MS Dhoni for 9 and having Dwayne Bravo caught. His last over, the 16th, cost one run.
Did Sunrisers Hyderabad still reach the 2018 final?
Yes. As the losing Qualifier 1 side they had a second chance, beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 14 runs in Qualifier 2 on 25 May 2018, and lost the final to Chennai by eight wickets on 27 May.
How many times did CSK beat SRH in IPL 2018?
Four times out of four: twice in the league stage, in Qualifier 1 and in the final.
What is the CSK vs SRH head-to-head record?
Across the 2013–2025 IPL seasons the sides met 23 times; Chennai Super Kings won 16 and Sunrisers Hyderabad 7.