New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have been on a dismal run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, losing five games in succession and also weakening their home dominance by registering a hat-trick of losses at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. They only have a single win to their credit, which came in the season opener against arch-rivals Mumbai Indians (MI), and only recently lost their fifth game to defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) with a huge margin.
This terrible run of the five-time champions has proven quite harsh on the loyal CSK fans who are not able to watch their beloved side lagging behind and sitting at the bottom of the points table. CSK have failed to strike the right chords in every department, and it was expected that the return of their talisman MS Dhoni as the skipper would bring back that old luck, but the team’s performance got all the more lethargic.
All these depressing events have traumatised the CSK fans, who are now worrying about their team’s qualification chances for the playoff stage. How things have changed this season, as it used to be Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) who ended up in the same scenario almost every season in the past. Calculators had to be pulled, and scenarios had to be built by the RCBians to figure out their team’s chances of playoff qualification.
CSK playoff qualification scenario
CSK have landed on the same page this year, and with five losses on the bounce, it’s the right time to calculate the playoff-making chances of the Daddy’s Army. It is understood that in a 10-team tournament, a minimum of 16 points is required to stay in the top four echelons of the points table. Currently, CSK have just two points to their credit in six games, and with eight games still remaining in IPL 2025, they need to win at least seven of those to gain 14 points.
Although CSK can get to a maximum of 18 points if they win all their remaining eight fixtures, winning seven games would take them to 16 points, which is a decent score to stay in the top four of the points table and qualify for the playoffs.
The 16 points have worked as a magic number for the teams as in the previous four IPL editions (2011, 2022, 2023, 2024), which involved 10 teams, every team with 16+ points made it to the playoffs.
Can CSK qualify with 14 points?
CSK will have an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs if they carry 14 points at the end of the league stage games. It happened only last year when RCB made it through to the top four with 14 points and coincidentally, pipped CSK on Net Run Rate (NRR), scripting a brilliant turnaround. CSK will have to follow RCB’s steps of winning their final league games by bigger margins, if looking to barge into the playoffs.
CSK currently sits ninth on the table and with a disastrous net run rate of -1.554, which they positively need to improve if looking to work their way up.
CSK endured their fifth loss on the trot and a third straight at their Chepauk den in IPL 2025 on Friday. Are there any chances left for the Daddy’s army to make it to the playoff stage? Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
