Chennai Super Kings’ hopes to make the IPL 2025 Playoffs suffered a major blow after they registered a five-wicket loss against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at home at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
The defeat pushed MS Dhoni’s men further down in the IPL points table to the last slot, marking their seventh defeat in eight matches. While Dhoni previously stated that the team will take it one game at a time from this scenario and keep up their hopes, CSK’s Playoffs race remains in hope of a miracle.
CSK IPL 2025 Playoff qualification scenario
With 4 points from 9 matches, CSK is currently six points away from the fourth-placed team, Mumbai Indians. While the mathematical chances remain slim, CSK can sneak through to the last four in the Playoffs, provided they win all of the remaining five matches and a string of other results also go their way.
No two consecutive IPL seasons have occurred without CSK qualifying for the final when they competed. CSK can take some inspiration from arch-rivals Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who pipped them last season to make the Playoffs with only 14 points. A win in their head-to-head clash in the last league match in 2024, RCB defeated CSK and qualified by virtue of a better Net Run Rate, marking it the first instance where a team qualified for the Playoffs with only 14 points since the league expanded to 10 teams in 2022.
However, CSK will need to better on the NRR front too besides winning games. Chennai’s NRR of -1.302 ranks the worst of all 10 teams this season. With three teams already on 12 points and three more slotted in on 10 points, the 14-point cut-off is expected to go higher this time, making it nearly evident that CSK’s hopes have nearly extinguished altogether.
CSK IPL 2025 remaining match schedule
- April 30: CSK vs PBKS, Chennai
- May 3: RCB vs CSK, Bengaluru
- May 7: KKR vs CSK, Kolkata
- May 12: CSK vs RR, Jaipur
- May 18: GT vs CSK, Ahmedabad
IPL 2025 Points table after CSK vs SRH match
| Rank | Team | P | W | L | NR | NRR | POINTS |
| 1 | GT | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1.104 | 12 |
| 2 | DC | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0.657 | 12 |
| 3 | RCB | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0.482 | 12 |
| 4 | MI | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0.67 | 10 |
| 5 | PBKS | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0.177 | 10 |
| 6 | LSG | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | -0.054 | 10 |
| 7 | KKR | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0.212 | 8 |
| 8 | SRH | 9 | 3 | 6 | 0 | -1.103 | 6 |
| 9 | RR | 9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | -0.625 | 4 |
| 10 | CSK | 9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | -1.302 | 4 |
