CCL 2025 Day 3: Match 5 Darling Krishna and Karan Aryan power Karnataka Bulldozers to victory over the Chennai Rhinos

Day 1 of the second week of the Celebrity Cricket League 2025 saw the Karnataka Bulldozers take on the Chennai Rhinos in the first match of the day. Two teams that have won the tournament twice, with the Rhinos having the distinction of beating the Bulldozers to win CCL back in the day, But those days are long gone and the Bulldozers proved yet again that they are the stronger team in the tournament, by trouncing the Rhinos in style. 

Chennai Rhinos opt to bat first; Karnataka Bulldozers chase it down easily

At the toss, both skippers, Chennai Rhinos’ Vikranth and Karnataka Bulldozers’ Kiccha Sudeep said that if they win the toss, they’d choose to bat first, given the conditions on the pitch and outfield. Vikranth got lucky and won the toss and came in to open for his team with Ramana. The duo managed a run rate of 10 per over until Chandan got rid of Ramana. Vikranth departed soon after, retiring hurt following an injury while dashing down the pitch for a quick run. Chandan also sent the next set batsman, Prithvi back to the pavilion, while Ganesh got the better of Dasarathi.

Despite the occasional wicket, the Bulldozer bowlers were not really able to rein in the flow of runs, what with J Karthik and Anup Bhandari giving 14 and 15 runs, respectively, in an over, and Ganesh 20 in the last one, taking the Rhinos to a total of 108 for the loss of 3 wickets.\

Also read:

CCL 2025: Match 2 Karnataka Bulldozers register stupendous victory against the Telugu Warriors 

Chasing this target and hopeful of getting a head-start over the Rhinos before heading into the second set of 10 overs each, the Bulldozers sent big hitters Darling Krishna and Rajeev Hanu to open, but before they could get settled in, the latter was back in the pavilion. Chandan came in, got a few handsome knocks in, but departed soon as well. Then came Karan Arya to join Krishna, and the man was on fire from the word go, getting 44 from only 19 balls, including 3 sixes and 5 fours, overtaking Krishna in the process. By then, the Bulldozers had levelled scores with the Rhinos and still had a little over 2 overs left in the innings.

Causing the most damage for the Bulldozers was Dasarathi, who took 4 brilliant catches just inside the boundary line. The innings was thought to have ended with Krishna on 44, but as the commentators, and later Kiccha Sudeep pointed out, there was one legal delivery pending in the over, for which the batsmen returned to the crease. Krishna, of course, dispatched it for a 6, taking the teams total to 142 for 4 and getting to a half century in the process. The lead – 34 runs – which the Rhinos not only had to cross over, but then also set a decent target that they could defend against the Bulldozers.

After a full 10-innings duration on the pitch, Krishna returned to open the bowling and while he gave away 11 runs, he also sent Sharan packing. The Rhinos needed to fire away, but with the Bulldozers sending batsmen back to the dug out at regular intervals, that was out of the question. They eventually got to 103 for the loss of 7 wickets, leaving the Bulldozers needing only 68 for the win. Karan and Karthik opened, but the latter failed to deliver, departing for a duck. Skipper Sudeep came in as one down, but couldn’t do much either, making only 3. After Karan also departed, it was once again down to Darling Krishna and Rajeev Hanu to get the team home.

Up next is the much-awaited match between the Telugu Warriors and the Bhojpuri Dabanggs, the finalists of the 2023 edition of CCL. Who will emerge victorious in this clash. Catch all the action live on JioHotstar.