Chennai Super Kings' quest for a playoffs spot suffered a setback as they fell to a 35-run defeat against the Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Friday.

The win not only kept the Titans alive in the race for the playoffs, it also did a huge favour to the other contenders — Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Chennai remain in the fourth spot with 12 points, followed by Delhi (12), Lucknow (12), RCB (10) and the Titans (10).

The chase for Chennai on Friday was always going to be a steep one after the Titans posted 231/3. Ruturaj Gaikwad's decision to send the opposition in first backfired badly. But even if they had harboured hopes of a brave chase, that got nipped in the bud once they were reduced to 10/3 in the third over.

Ahmedabad: Chennai Super Kings' Tushar Deshpande drops a catch of Gujarat Titans' captain Shubman Gill during an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings PTI

With the top order gone, Chennai battled on for some time with Daryll Mitchell (63 off 34 balls) and Moeen Ali (56 off 36 balls) playing some big shots. But once Mohit Sharma (3/31) removed both the batsmen in the middle overs, it became even more difficult for Chennai. Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja flattered to deceive shining briefly, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni (26 not out off 11 balls) once again entertained the crowd, but in a lost cause.

The way Dhoni is batting, it's baffling why he refuses to bat up the order. He certainly isn't helping his team doing that, neither he can claim that he is playing/batting only for entertainment purpose.

Chennai have two more matches left and maybe Dhoni can reconsider his decision of coming out to bat mostly when nothing is left to be done.

The day, however, belonged to the Titans openers — captain Shubman Gill and B. Sai Sudharsan. Gill and Sai Sudharsan put up a 210-run stand, the highest for the Titans for any wicket. While Sai Sudharsan made 103 off 51 balls, Gill, long due for a quality innings, hit 104 off 55 balls.

It could easily have been a 260-plus total for the Titans had Chennai not pulled things back in the last three overs of the innings, when they conceded only one boundary. But that was too little, too late.

As for the Titans, they have finally woken up from their slumber, but one fears they are too late to catch-up with the others.