MA Chidambaram Stadium IPL records: the biggest numbers from CSK’s Chepauk fortress

The MA Chidambaram Stadium IPL records read like a museum of contradictions. Chepauk is the ground where the ball grips and turns from the very first over, where a good spinner can strangle a chase, and yet it also holds one of the most explosive totals the tournament produced in its early years. Chennai’s fortress has shaped Chennai Super Kings’ identity as much as any player has, and the numbers from the venue tell you why teams walk in wary.

What is the highest IPL total at MA Chidambaram Stadium?

The highest team total in an IPL match at Chepauk is 246 for 5, made by Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals on 3 April 2010. Murali Vijay tore the innings open with 127 off 56 balls, a hand that carried eleven sixes and eight fours, and Albie Morkel added a rapid 62 alongside him. Rajasthan did not roll over. They replied with 223 for 5, but the chase fell 23 runs short, leaving that Chennai score untouched at the top of the venue list for well over a decade.

That match is the outlier that people forget when they call Chepauk a low-scoring ground. For most of its IPL history the venue has sat at the other end of the scale, which is exactly what the lowest total shows.

The lowest total, and the pitch that produced it

At the bottom of the record is Royal Challengers Bangalore, bowled out for 70 in the opening match of IPL 2019 on 23 March. Batting first against Chennai, RCB lasted only 17.1 overs. Parthiv Patel top-scored with 29 and no other batter reached double figures, as Harbhajan Singh (3/20), Imran Tahir (3/9) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/15) picked the innings apart on a surface already turning. Chennai knocked off the runs in 17.4 overs to win by seven wickets.

That collapse captured Chepauk at its most typical: red soil, low bounce, and spin that arrives early and stays. It is the reason the venue rewards teams built around slow bowling rather than raw pace, and why a total that would look modest elsewhere can feel out of reach here.

The biggest individual performances at Chepauk

Vijay’s 127 in 2010 remains the highest individual score by a batter in an IPL match at the ground, and given how the pitch has behaved since, it may stand for a long time yet.

With the ball, the standout spell belongs to Akash Madhwal. In the IPL 2023 Eliminator, playing for Mumbai Indians against Lucknow Super Giants at Chepauk, Madhwal returned 5 for 5 in 3.3 overs, dismissing Lucknow for 101 and sealing an 81-run win. Those are the best bowling figures the venue has seen in the IPL, and they matched the joint-best figures by an Indian bowler in the tournament’s history. Fittingly for Chepauk, it was seam and cutters rather than out-and-out speed that did the damage, with the slow surface turning length balls into a lottery.

Is Chepauk a batting or a bowling pitch?

For most of its life the honest answer has been bowling, and spin bowling in particular. The pitch is slow and dry, it grips from the early overs, and a score around 160 to 170 has often been competitive rather than par. Teams batting first have tended to hold the edge here, because defending a total on a surface that gets slower and lower is easier than chasing on it under lights.

The picture has softened a little in recent seasons. The highest successful chase at the ground came in IPL 2024, when Lucknow Super Giants ran down 211 against Chennai, Marcus Stoinis carrying them home with an unbeaten 124 off 63 balls and six wickets to spare. That result showed the pitch can play flat when it is fresh, and that a batter in form can override the venue’s reputation. Even so, the reputation is earned, and most nights at Chepauk still favour the side that reads the conditions and trusts its spinners.

For a longer view of the same ground across the five-day game, our breakdown of the MA Chidambaram Stadium Test records shows how differently the surface behaves over a match spread across days rather than three hours.

Why Chepauk belongs to Chennai

No side has used a home ground quite like Chennai Super Kings have used this one. Their spin-heavy squads have long been assembled with Chepauk in mind, and the crowd, packed and yellow, turns the place into one of the loudest venues in the competition. The RCB 70 in 2019 and countless tight defences on the same square are the products of a plan that starts with the pitch. When Chennai win the toss and choose to set a total here, opponents know what is coming.

The venue records also sit alongside a growing cluster of grounds we have mapped, including the Sawai Mansingh Stadium IPL records from Rajasthan’s Jaipur home, another venue where local knowledge counts for plenty.

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