Did CSK delay retiring Conway out? 'They missed that point,' says Chawla

Devon Conway became the second batter to be retired out in IPL 2025, after Tilak Varma in Mumbai Indians' (MI) chase against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) earlier in the tournament. On Tuesday, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) pulled out Conway when he failed to get a move on with the asking rate against Punjab Kings (PBKS) rising. But, in the opinion of Piyush Chawla and Wasim Jaffer, CSK might have waited too long for the decision to have an effect on the result.

"Conway is the kind of batter who is more technically strong and he doesn't try to play that [many shots] in the air. You saw that in the middle overs also, when he was trying to hit a pull shot also, he was rolling his wrists like a proper technical batsman," Chawla said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show. "That's where they missed that point. When Shivam [Dube] was trying to hit those bit shots, Conway didn't even try that. At one point, I felt he just wanted to take it deep. But if you want to take the game deep, you don't want your [asking] rate to go out of hand."

Playing his second game of the season, Conway had a 61-run stand with Rachin Ravindra up top in CSK's chase of PBKS' 219, and after Ruturaj Gaikwad fell cheaply, added 89 more with Dube. That partnership came off just 51 balls, with Dube scoring at 155.55. But after Dube was gone, and with 69 needed off 25 balls, Conway made nine more runs off six balls. MS Dhoni was in the middle, and Ravindra Jadeja and Vijay Shankar walked out after Conway left, but CSK fell 18 short.

"You expect that change [of gears] to happen at some point of time when you know the batsman is struggling," Gaikwad said of the decision at the presentation ceremony. "Initially we thought that he was still striking the ball [well]. We waited, waited until we thought it was necessary and then we thought, yes, why not change."

"If they wanted to do that, they could have done that at least two-three overs before that also," Chawla said. "Because if he is not getting those big shots, you want somebody to come in and you want to give that kind of a sighter, at least two to three balls, and then got for it. By the time they retired him out it was too late, I felt."

Jaffer, however, felt that CSK didn't have a choice at that point because they didn't expect the big shots to come from Jadeja or Vijay Shankar either.

"You could have retired him and you could have retired him a little early. But, again, Jadeja was the only one [left]. I don't think they would have trusted [Vijay Shankar]… you needed one more batter there who could have done that [score quickly]," Jaffer said. "But, unfortunately, they didn't have anybody. Even Jadeja for that matter, he has his restrictions [in terms of how fast he can score]."

As it turned out, while Dhoni was quick in scoring 27 in 12 balls with three sixes, Jadeja and Vijay Shankar scored 11 runs in seven balls. But, to be fair to them, by the time they got out, it was perhaps too late to change anything.

Stephen Fleming, the CSK coach, agreed that the innings had "lost some momentum" in the middle overs, but was pleased that they had crossed 200 for the first time this season.

"We had an innings of substance at the top [from Conway]. In the IPL, you need your top three/four to get a majority of the runs. We haven't been doing that," Fleming said. "It was pleasing that we got off to a more solid start. We weren't able to just maintain a high momentum through the middle, partly good bowling and maybe we were trying to push too hard. It's something we will review.

"But it's not a bad chase. About three hits away. But we just lost a bit of momentum through the middle."