MS Dhoni and Deepak Chahar shared a few light moments during Sunday’s CSK vs MI clash in IPL 2025 in Chennai. After CSK let go of the new-ball seamer ahead of the mega auction late last year, rivals Mumbai Indians bagged his services for $1.08m (INR 9.25 crore), unleashing him against his former IPL team for whom he featured for seven years. On his return to the Chepauk, Deepak scored crucial runs and picked one wicket.

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Chennai won the toss and sent the touring MI side into bat first. Removing MI’s top three inside the Powerplay, including their former captain Rohit Sharma, CSK had MI's back against the wall. The stand-in captain, Suryakumar Yadav and batter, Tilak Varma, saved their sinking ship, but regular wickets in the middle order meant MI feared getting all out inside the 20 overs. Who comes to their rescue? Deepak Chahar. 

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The handy lower-order batter smashed a few boundaries, including hitting one on the last ball, to see his team score 155 for nine. His pumped-up celebration after that showed what it meant to him.

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In the second innings, Deepak removed CSK’s Impact Sub Rahul Tripathi (caught behind) but failed to pick up more wickets. However, in the penultimate over, after Ravindra Jadeja got run out and MS Dhoni came out to bat, he stood close to Dhoni near the batting crease, continuing to clap and poke him. 

Dhoni being Dhoni, he kept calm before the game got over on the first ball of the final over but picked on Chahar after the match when both teams shook hands. As he stood his ground, waiting for Chahar to cross him, Dhoni playfully hit Chahar on his backside with his side, displaying his bond with the former CSK seamer.

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Meanwhile, Chennai is among the three teams, including Royal Challengers Bengaluru and SunRisers Hyderabad, to have opened their accounts in IPL 2025. 

On Monday, Delhi Capitals will host Lucknow Super Giants in game four of this season in Vizag. 

(With inputs from agencies)