MI vs CSK

CSK's best outing of the season so far and it comes on a night when the stakes were high, they have demolished their arch-rivals Mumbai Indians who now have a lot of soul searching to do in the 5-day gap they have before their next game against SRH here at the Wankhede once more. CSK will face GT on Sunday in the heat of Chennai in an afternoon game but before that GT will take on RCB who are coming in fresh after a 5-day break themselves and will be ready to play their last league game of the season at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. We will be there to bring you all the action as ever, for now this is Sourabh Agrawal signing off on behalf of Pradeep, Bidipto and the rest of the team. Cheers!

Sanju Samson is the Player of the Match for his 5th IPL century, second one of the season, 101* off 54 balls. Here is what he had to say - (his feeling about how he batted tonight) Feels great to score a century against MI at Wankhede, definitely a special moment. I am trying to keep things simple these days, just look at the conditions. Today, this wasn't a normal Wankhede wicket, the ball was swinging around and holding a bit. Need to assess what the team demands, gives you clarity. Right after the powerplay, I knew what type of wicket this is. We kept losing wickets and it was important for us to have a set batter down till the end. So that is what I tried and that's what happened today

As I told you, the game tells you what to do. You can't come in with a premeditated mind that this is what I need to do or this is how I play. With the experience that I have, the team comes first. The responsibility the team has shown on me, it is my responsibility to understand what the team wants and then plan around it

(Taking confidence from this game) It is a very young team but the character the boys have shown even after 3 losses, is commendable. We know every game is important, every team comes with their own plans and great intensity, we need to be ready

(Seeing yellow at Wankhede) I think I am wearing yellow for the first time. Never seen so much yellow at Wankhede, it is a new feeling for me

Ruturaj Gaikwad (CSK captain): (Speaking about Mukesh Chaudhary) Pretty tough for him, I would like to dedicate this win to him. Hats off to him to come back for the franchise in this hard time, coming back from such a sad situation, all glory to him. We spoke before going into the field about giving it all for him, everyone wanted to chip in and be there for him

I was 50-50 at the toss, as I said. My gut wanted to bat first, it was a bit green but it was a little dry too. Me and Sanju assessed in the first couple of overs, it was not coming on nicely and we felt that anything around 200 would be a good score. Akeal and Noor chipped in and even those 20s from Brevis and Kartik helped a lot too.  Sanju played a magnificent knock, he has been in fantastic touch and then our bowling has been improving with every game

(on his bowlers) We are heading in a direction where we are trying to cover all bases. Mukesh, to start with the first over, to contain at the start and then get the momentum bowling to the likes of Surya and Tilak in the powerplay. Jamie, whenever the wicket has some pace and bounce, Jamie and Gurjapneet are the ones who get us wickets in the middle. Always a blessing to have someone like Akeal, Noor is always there. Everyone is settling into their roles nicely and are calm and composed knowing what to do

(going back to Chepauk) It is about starting from zero, we will go back and assess situations. A day game now, just a couple of days before that and we will go back and start from scratch

Akeal Hosein [Chennai Super Kings]: "(On his bowling performance and use of conditions) Thank you. The pitch offered a bit of everything—some swing early on and also a bit of grip—so the focus was on using those conditions as effectively as possible.(On his bowling plan and execution) The plan was to stay on the stumps and make the batters play. If they managed to hit good shots off those lines, then fair play to them, but the idea was to keep things simple and disciplined.(On bowling in the powerplay) It’s a challenging phase, but the mindset is to stay committed to your plans. As I’ve been told before, you’re going to get hit in the powerplay, so it’s important not to worry about that. Instead, focus on your execution, understand the batter’s strengths and weaknesses, and back your own skills.(On his bowling partnership) It’s always great to have support from the other end. I’m really happy for Noor—he’s been working hard, and it’s good to see him getting rewards again after a few tough games."

Hardik Pandya [Mumbai Indians captain]: "(On the powerplay and the chase) Losing an early wicket in the powerplay always puts you on the back foot, especially in a big chase like this. From there, we were always trying to catch up, and we couldn’t really recover.(On the pitch and opposition performance) I wouldn’t say the conditions changed. It was the same pitch for both teams—they batted well and got 207. We needed to bat better. Their spinners did well, but I thought ours were effective too. The difference was that Sanju played an outstanding innings, and their batters kept contributing around him to push the total to a very competitive score.(On what went wrong in the chase) For a chase like that, a strong powerplay is crucial. We needed momentum early, and we didn’t get that, which made things difficult for us.(On areas to improve and next steps) We’ll go back, reassess, and figure out what needs to change. There’s a bit of time before the next game, so we’ll use that to regroup and come back stronger."

11:22 PM local time and IST: MATCH SUMMARY

Chennai Super Kings (207/6 in 20 overs) beat Mumbai Indians (104 all-out in overs in 19 overs) by 103 runs

Sanju Samson 101*(54) | Akeal Hosein 4/17(4)
Tilak Verma 37(29) | Allah Ghazanfar 2/25(4)

Absolute demolition job, if ever there was one as CSK down MI to their biggest ever loss in the IPL and at the same time the biggest win for CSK in IPL history. A 103-run victory for the men in yellow, they win round 1 of this marquee clash and it has done wonders for them, not only do CSK pick up two crucial points but also jump up all the way to number 5 in the points table and their NRR moves into the positive as well

The win was setup by a Sanju Samson special, the only batter out of the 22 that batted on the night to score over 40 runs and he did not stop at 40, 50 or 60. Carried his bat all the way through the innings and finished it off with a maximum to get to his 5th IPL century and getting CSK to what proved to be a huge total in the end

MI needed a good start with the bat, they needed to get off the blocks quickly and have the wickets in hand but the exact opposite happened. Akeal Hosein started it off for CSK with the ball, picked up a wicket in the very first over by dismissing Malewar, de Kock chopped one off Mukesh Chaudhary in the next over and then Naman Dhir was cleaned up by Hosein again as MI found themselves at 11/3 very early and they simply could not recover from there onwards

Tilak Verma (37) and Suryakumar Yadav (36) did get a partnership going, they got together and steadied the ship for MI but that was not even near to a fluent association between the two. Their strike rates where in the 120s and that tells you the story but they did put on 73 runs for the third wicket

However, Akeal Hosein once again came back with the ball and broke the stand by dismissing Tilak Verma and that opened the floodgates big time. From 84/3 to 104 all-out, MI fell down like a pack of cards losing their last 7 wickets for just 20 runs

The CSK spinners, Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad, spun a web around the MI lineup and the home side had no answers at all. 6/41 in 8 overs for the spin twins, every single CSK bowler picked up at least one wicket and it was a complete surrender from MI either side of that partnership. The pitch was slow, it was gripping too but not even in the wildest of dreams was it a 104-all out pitch

18.6 Gurjapneet Singh to Jasprit Bumrah, OUT! EDGED AND TAKEN! AND, IT'S ALL OVER! Chennai Super Kings thump Mumbai Indians, pick up two crucial points and move up the ladder. Back of a length outside the off-stump, Bumrah trying to run it down to third-man, but gets a thick outside edge. Samson fittingly takes that catch.

18.2 Gurjapneet Singh to Jasprit Bumrah, slower one, back of a length outside the off-stump. Bumrah waits and dabs it down to third-man for a single.

Gurjapneet Singh [1.0-0-5-0] to bowl the 19th, can he too join in on the wickets? All the other CSK bowlers have at least one wicket to show for tonight

We will go into the next over, the 19th of this innings but this game is all but over. The CSK camp has a lot of happy faces, rightly so. They are about to get a big boost here, both in terms of morale and in the points table where it all matters