The 44th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 was played between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI). In this match played in Chepauk on Saturday (May 2), CSK won by 8 wickets. MI won the toss and batted first and scored 159 runs for the loss of 7 wickets, which CSK easily achieved by losing 2 wickets in 18.1 overs with the help of unbeaten half-centuries from captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Karthik Sharma.
This was CSK’s second consecutive win against MI this season. Earlier on April 23, CSK had defeated MI by 103 runs at Wankhede Stadium. Now with the big win at home, CSK has moved to sixth place in the points table. On the other hand, MI is on the verge of being out of the playoff race. This was his third consecutive defeat. MI has been able to win only 2 out of 9 matches. Now even if MI wins its remaining five, it will still be able to reach only 14 points, which will not be enough to reach the playoffs.
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CSK won the match in powerplay itself
CSK, chasing the target of 159 runs on the slow pitch of Chepauk, did not have a good start. Sanju Samson (11), who scored the most runs for the team, became the victim of Jasprit Bumrah in the very second over. After this, captain Ruturaj and Urvil Patel batted brilliantly and took CSK beyond 60 in the powerplay. Urvil was out after playing a quick innings of 24 runs in 12 balls. CSK scored 62 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in the powerplay, due to which MI came on the backfoot and then Ruturaj and Karthik did not give them a chance to make a comeback.
Rituraj-Karthik made an unbeaten partnership of 98 runs for the third wicket and gave an easy victory to CSK. Rituraj played an unbeaten inning of 67 runs in 48 balls with the help of 5 fours and 2 sixes. Karthik played the first half-century inning of his IPL career. He scored unbeaten 54 runs in 40 balls, which included 4 fours and 3 sixes.
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MI’s innings suddenly slowed down
MI had scored 90 runs at the loss of 2 wickets in 10 overs. Naman Dhir started the 11th over with consecutive fours. MI team seemed to be easily crossing 200 but as soon as Suryakumar Yadav (21) was out, its innings suddenly slowed down. Tilak Verma could score only 5 runs in 8 balls, while captain Hardik Pandya batted till the last over but could score only 8 runs in 23 balls. MI team could only add 69 runs in the last 10 overs. From his side, Naman Dheer scored the highest score of 57 runs. Ryan Rickleton contributed 37 runs.
For CSK, Anshul Kamboj took 3 wickets for 32 runs in 4 overs. Noor Ahmed gave only 26 runs in 4 overs and took 2 wickets. Debutant Ramakrishna Ghosh and Jamie Overton had 1-1 wickets in their account.
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