New-act Noor drops old-school vibes at Chepauk

"Will things ever be the same again? It's the final countdown..."

"Those were the best days of my life..."

The vibe on the opening night of the new season at Chepauk took a sudden nostalgia turn just before the start of play. As massive new tifos were unfurled in the stands, the PA system cut through the pregame hum with Europe's Final Countdown and Bryan Adams' Summer of 69. Merely minutes earlier, Chennai's very own Anirudh Ravichander had brought the house down with all his latest chartbusters in his high-energy live set.

This duality of retro anthems and modern fanfare was also in line with how the rest of the evening would unfold as 20-year-old Noor Ahmad revived a classic CSK script in the takedown of Mumbai Indians.

To understand the significance of CSK's first home game of the season - a largely routine win - it's worth quickly harking back to IPL 2019. Chennai Super Kings had in their ranks a 40-year-old wrist spinner, Imran Tahir, who ended the season with 26 wickets to his name and a Purple Cap on his head. That same year a 14-year-old Noor quietly threw his hat into the IPL auction ring for the first time, perhaps aware that even with this league's penchant for the extraordinary, his time hadn't quite arrived.

CSK made the final that year and lost to Mumbai Indians by a solitary run. Then came the pandemic, which kept them away from Chepauk for three long years. When they finally returned in 2023, much had changed: Tahir wasn't around, Noor had broken through into the IPL and games in Chennai weren't quite conforming to the scripts of old.

In 2023, CSK still claimed 17 wickets through spin in the middle overs, just three fewer than the Tahir-powered high of 2019. But those returns fell off a cliff last year, when CSK's spinners managed just five wickets from seven home games. As it turned out, it was the first ever season in which CSK played at Chepauk and failed to make the playoffs.

The spin situation, in particular, didn't sit right with assistant coach Michael Hussey, who after the final home game of the season offered a rather telling comment: "Obviously the BCCI want to see good cricket and want to see high scores. They want to see attacking, attractive cricket. We've had a lot of success in the past, basing our game around spin and batting against spin as well. I guess coming into the next auction, that's something the management probably will think very closely about..."

In a statement perhaps as emphatic as Hussey's from the year before, CSK's spinners matched their entire 2024 tally in just the opening game of the 2025 season. Leading the way was new signing Noor, who accounted for four of those wickets, giving away just 18 runs and no boundaries off the bat. That this performance came against Mumbai Indians was also laced with a touch of irony. They were the very franchise that CSK outlasted in a bidding battle at the recent mega auction to acquire Noor's services.

Having seen the gavel fall at INR 5 crore, CSK then had to contend with Gujarat Titans' Right to Match option. What followed became one of the more memorable images of the auction: Stephen Fleming raising all 10 fingers toward the auctioneer, signalling CSK's willingness to double Noor's valuation to INR 10 crore. It was a bold sign of intent: CSK were not just taking Noor beyond GT's threshold but that they were willing to burn nearly one-fifth of their available purse on a third spinner, having already retained Ravindra Jadeja and splurged a further INR 9.75 crore to secure R. Ashwin.

Perhaps CSK were confident about their pitches taking a turn to their liking and simply wanted to cover all the spin bases. There's Jadeja for accurate, defensive spin bowling when needed in the middle overs. Ashwin can turn the ball both ways and provide an option in the PowerPlay. Noor offered a point of difference by bringing both edges of the bat in play while also transcending the pitch with his fast wrist spin. Sunday was just validation. The pitch played slow and offered some turn - conditions likely to get more spin-friendly as the summer wears on - but Noor proved unhittable through the middle phase as the MI innings unraveled.

He didn't just exploit the surface, he imposed himself on it, so much so that even MS Dhoni was beaten by a big margin when Noor ripped a big legbreak past Tilak Varma's heave. Two balls later, he had Suryakumar Yadav beaten with one that went the other way and was stumped in a flash. Tilak was beaten both in the flight and off the pitch and trapped on the crease with a googly. It was a variation he used for a third wicket as Naman Dhir was bowled round his legs. The trouble for MI's batters, as they repeatedly discovered, was they couldn't pick Noor from the hand. Coupled with his pace in the mid-90s (kph), he became a menace to deal with for MI - as well as a portent for future opponents.

For a franchise that has built so much of its identity around home dominance, Noor's best-ever IPL figures in a strong spin show felt like a gentle restoration of order. Noor was a brand new act in the yellow, but he was playing all the old hits, and for a team eager to recapture that rhythm, the tune felt just right.