Chennai Super Kings suffered their first loss of the season after suffering a 4-run defeat at the hand of Kings XI Punjab.

Chasing a huge 198, Super Kings were off to a shaky start and were three down with just 56 runs on the board. Shane Watson was the first to depart, falling to Mohit Sharma after scoring 11. Murali Vijay and Sam Billings also failed to contribute big, departing after scoring 12 and 9 respectively.

Ambati Rayudu and MS Dhoni stopped the rot with a 57-run stand. However, they could not score at a desired rate. The stand came to an end when Rayudu was run out for 49. From there on, it was an one way traffic as Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja were finding it tough to bat as per the demands. However, Dhoni soon turned back the clock with some big hits and revived the chase.He reached his fifty off just 34 balls to bring back his side in the game.

The equation was finally down to 17 off the last over but Andrew Tye managed to held his nerve, conceding 12 runs to fire his team to a thrilling win. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 79 off just 44 balls.

Earlier in the game, Chennai pulled back things towards the end to restrict Kings XI Punjab to 197 for 7 in 20 overs. The hosts were looking set to post well in excess of 200 after Chris Gayle and KL Rahul came out all guns blazing. At the end of the powerplay the scoreboard was reading 75 for no loss. Gayle, playing his first game of the season, scored 46 off 21. The Jamaican went on to score his fifty off 22 balls. Rahul was also going great guns from the other end.

The duo added 96 runs for the first wicket off just 47 balls before Harbhajan Singh struck. The off-spinner dismissed Rahul who scored 37 off 22. Gayle was next to depart after scoring 63 off 33. His dismissal allowed Super Kings to crawl their way back and they did well to pull back thing. Kings XI kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and finished on 197 despite being 127 in 11.3 overs. They could manage only 43 runs in the last five overs. But such was their start, that the 197-run score turned out to be more than enough in the end.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the match:

CSK loses, but Dhoni clearly the winner tonight. Unbelievable knock! ???#CSKvsKXIP

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 15, 2018

Easier to take a dig at him for playing the game he does the best. But what a fighting knock, 79* from 44 balls. Once a fighter, always a fighter, @msdhoni

— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) April 15, 2018

MS stands for Mad Skills #Dhoni

— Peter Miller (@TheCricketGeek) April 15, 2018

Surely he is in Pain. Struggling to stay there. Sends back the Physio. That's MS Dhoni for you. #KXIPvCSK

— Prabhu (@Cricprabhu) April 15, 2018

https://twitter.com/AlexHartley93/status/985582535546720256

Forget the injury, Dhoni is here!!

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 15, 2018

Crowd just loves MS. Every ground is home ground for Dhoni. #KXIPvCSK

— Sagar (@sagarcasm) April 15, 2018

What an entertainment Mahii ?

— Jatin (@LogicalBakwaas) April 15, 2018

Gayle was brutal upfront; but he took the limelight away from some super cricket shots played by KL Rahul; who is your pick in the Chennai lineup to haul in that imposing total @trigam_m @StarPickFantasy

— Jonty Rhodes (@JontyRhodes8) April 15, 2018

Thala not sending Bravo because Bravo saare runs bana dega toh average kaise badhega.

— gcg ⚰️ (@The_Sleigher) April 15, 2018

Dhoni brings Jadeja ahead of Bravo so that he's not the one with lowest strike rate on crease

— Jatin (@LogicalBakwaas) April 15, 2018

commentators: the required run rate has crossed 12. dhoni: #KXIPvCSK pic.twitter.com/bKR5tbEVqk

— sunil the cricketer (@1sInto2s) April 15, 2018

Mary kom won boxing Gold at the age of 36, and Dhoni can't even run between the wickets without getting injured. Choose your hero wisely

— EngiNerd. (@mainbhiengineer) April 15, 2018

Dhoni * screams * bahar nikal ke maarega …. wide daalna tu.

Ashwin * bowled a wide *

Dhoni * stays in crease * hahahahaha chu banaya#KXIPvCSK

— sunil the cricketer (@1sInto2s) April 15, 2018

Suresh Raina in IPL:

2008: Played all CSK games
2009: Played all CSK games
2010: Played all CSK games
2011: Played all CSK games
2012: Played all CSK games
2013: Played all CSK games
2014: Played all CSK games
2015: Played all CSK games
2018: 1st time missed CSK game

— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) April 15, 2018

Chennai does the improbable task of keeping Punjab below 200. Every chance of them chasing this down with only 5 bowling options for KXIP and one of them is Mohit Sharma.

— Shubh Aggarwal (@shubh_chintak) April 15, 2018

Have some really nice childhood memories of clearer skies, lesser pollution, less traffic and Harbhajan Singh actually turning the ball..

— The Lying Lama 2.0 (@KyaUkhaadLega) April 15, 2018

https://twitter.com/sagarcasm/status/985540488626429953

KL Rahul and Gayle firing. RCB's management must be feeling like a boyfriend whose girlfriend turns to a bomb after breakup #KXIPvCSK

— cric_bakchod (@Cric_bakchod) April 15, 2018

Chennai hit by Gayle!

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 15, 2018

RCB fans watching KL Rahul and Chris Gayle batting. pic.twitter.com/imUjFrzRum

— Amandeep (@amuyuvi) April 15, 2018

#KXIPvCSK
CSK must be wondering why they didn’t buy Chris Gayle. He is certainly old enough for them.

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) April 15, 2018

Chris Gayle – 50 in 22 balls today – his second fastest in IPL.

His only faster 50 was off 17 balls v PWI when he scored 175. #KXIPvCSK

— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) April 15, 2018