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Before Wednesday evening, Sam Curran’s IPL season was a continuation of the freefall that he has been trapped in since he was named Player of the Tournament at the T20 World Cup that England won in Australia in 2022. His 2025 campaign had consisted of three matches, 21 runs from 32 balls and six wicketless overs that went for 72. Even the Rs 2.4 crores that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had paid for him at the December auction seemed a waste.

Remember that this was a player on whom Punjab Kings (PBKS), the opposition at Chepauk on Wednesday, had invested 18.5 crores on in 2023. PBKS had clearly been influenced by his displays in Australia, where the big grounds and pitches favoured his style of bowling. As England romped to the title, Curran finished with 13 wickets from six matches at an outstanding economy rate of 6.52.

WATCH - Sam Curran's heated 'call me' celebration after sensational knock in CSK vs PBKS clash goes viral

Curran was no failure with PBKS. In a mediocre and inconsistent side, he scored 546 runs and took 26 wickets across two seasons. But a batting strike-rate below 130 and a bowling economy rate of nearly 10.20 were not those of a champion or game-changer. It was almost as if playing in a poor side reduced him to that level.

Son of Kevin Curran, who took three wickets in the Kapil Dev-175-not-out World Cup match at Tunbridge Wells (1983), Sam made his Test debut against Pakistan two days before his 20th birthday in 2018. He was seen as an all-format prospect, and though his stock has fallen dramatically in recent times, he has 117 England caps (24 Tests, 35 ODIs, 58 T20Is) to his name at the age of 26.

WATCH - CSK vs PBKS: Yuzvendra Chahal takes first hat-trick of IPL 2025, Celebrates with viral meme pose

But even in a CSK team struggling so badly at the bottom of the table, opportunities have been hard to come by. All four of his appearances have come at Chepauk, where a sluggish pitch was supposed to suit his cutters and other variations. Curran the batter has been almost an afterthought. It’s only because CSK’s top order has been so dismal that they promoted him to No. 3 against his old side.

He needed some luck too to get going, with a top edge off Marco Jansen flying over the keeper for four. After then nudging the ball around a bit, the big shots came out against the spinners, Harpreet Brar and Yuzvendra Chahal. He took a liking to the medium pace of Azmatullah Omarzai and Suryansh Shedge, and it was the 16th over bowled by the latter that saw him smash two sixes and two fours. Another six followed off Jansen before he nicked one behind.

Left-hand batters are often associated with languid grace, but Curran’s knock was all about slogging with power. Three-fourths of his 88 runs (47 balls) came in that arc between long-on and fine-leg. Forget flowing cover-drives, this was all about baseball-like slugging. It may have come too late to salvage CSK’s season, but it showed that Curran could yet turn his career around.

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