Mumbai (TIP)- There was a time, not too long ago, when anything around 200 at the Wankhede felt like a starting point, not a winning score. The ground has seen too many chases, too many counterattacks, too many nights when the team batting second refused to blink. There are evenings here when 200 doesn’t feel safe. And then there are nights when it looks a long way away.
This was one of those nights. Chennai Super Kings didn’t just defend 207, they controlled the game for most of the evening, dismantling Mumbai Indians with calm decisions, clear roles and players stepping up at the right moments.
It ended as Mumbai’s biggest defeat by runs in IPL history, with Sanju Samson and Akeal Hosein driving a memorable El Clasico win. It also came without MS Dhoni, but there was little sign of anything missing in the way CSK went about their work.
SAMSON LIGHTS UP WANKHEDE
It began with Sanju Samson, who played an innings that held everything together when it could have easily fallen apart. CSK did get off to a bright start. Ruturaj Gaikwad looked more like himself, finding the middle early and taking on Hardik Pandya. There was a flick of the wrists, a pull that sailed over, and suddenly 19 runs had come off an over. Samson, at the other end, was already settling in, opening up the off-side with ease.
But just when it looked like CSK might run away with the powerplay, the innings slowed. Gaikwad, after getting to 22, tried to go inside-out and didn’t quite get it right. Tilak Varma judged it well in the deep, and that wicket opened the door for Mumbai. From there, it became one of those passages where batters got in but didn’t stay. Sarfaraz Khan showed intent but was undone by the dip from Mitchell Santner. Shivam Dube, given the licence to attack, was beaten by a drift from AM Ghazanfar. Dewald Brevis came and went in a burst.
Through all of this, Samson didn’t change. He didn’t try to force the pace when wickets were falling, and he didn’t get stuck either. He just kept playing the ball on merit. A boundary when it was there, a single when it wasn’t. The innings grew quietly. By the time the final overs arrived, he had already done the hard work. And then he finished it in style, lifting one over cover for six and pulling the last ball to bring up his hundred. An unbeaten 101 off 54 balls, with 10 fours and six sixes, but more importantly, an innings that gave CSK something solid to defend. At 207 for six, they had a total. Not massive, but enough if they bowled well.
What followed showed just how well they understood the situation.
AKEAL’s MATCH-WINNING IMPACT
The chase began badly for Mumbai and never really recovered. Akeal Hosein struck in the very first over, removing Danish Malewar for a golden duck. It set the tone. Quinton de Kock tried to break free early, even got off the mark with a six, but Mukesh Choudhary pulled things back quickly, cleaning him up for 7. There were no easy overs. Mukesh and Kamboj kept things tight, and by the end of the powerplay, Mumbai had posted their lowest score of the season in that phase.
There was a brief period when it looked like they might find a way back. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma came together and began to rebuild. The boundaries came in patches. Tilak, in particular, looked confident. He took on Noor Ahmad, reached out to the balls well outside off, and still managed to find the fence. There was even a moment of celebration, a small fist pump, as he began to feel the innings.
The partnership crossed fifty, and for a while, CSK were tested. This is where Gaikwad’s captaincy stood out. He has often been seen as someone who prefers pace options in the middle overs, someone who doesn’t always turn to spin as an attacking weapon.
But on this night, he read the situation differently. He kept going back to his spinners, even when the match-up wasn’t the obvious one. There has been a lot of talk this season about left-arm spinners bowling to left-hand batters.
Earlier, Aaron Finch had questioned why Axar Patel stayed away from that match-up when Abhishek Sharma was going strong. Here, CSK did the opposite. They trusted the skill, not the pattern. Source: India Today
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