Gaikwad and Kartik steady the ship as CSK beat stuttering Mumbai to keep play-off hopes alive
Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians by eight wickets to revive their play-off push. Ruturaj Gaikwad’s unbeaten 67 and Kartik Sharma’s maiden fifty did the bulk of the work, chasing down 160 with 11 balls to spare. For Mumbai, another evening of squandered opportunity — 159 all but sealed their fate in a season that has consistently promised more than it has delivered.
Mumbai stutter again
It was a night where Mumbai had themselves to blame.
Winning the toss on a dry Chepauk surface, they lost Will Jacks in the second over without scoring. Ryan Rickelton and Naman Dhir steadied things, threatening a total in excess of 180. In the powerplay, Rickelton hit five sixes — three of them off a single Prashant Veer over — but strip those away and he made only seven off his remaining 19 deliveries. The platform was being laid, not built upon.
CSK stayed patient, chasing wickets, fully aware that Mumbai’s brittle middle order could combust at any moment. It duly did. The slide began in the most frustrating fashion. Shivam Dube, already a perplexing selection ahead of being used as an Impact Substitute, dropped a simple chance at short third man off Noor Ahmad to reprieve Rickelton. One delivery later, Noor fired one flat at the left-hander. The sweep is Rickelton’s bread and butter, but the trajectory was too flat to get underneath — he flat-batted it straight to deep square leg for 37. The moment Mumbai started unravelling.
From despair 🫣 to delight 🥳
Noor Ahmad with an eventful first over 👏👏
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Suryakumar Yadav arrived and briefly shifted the mood, racing to 21 off 11 before finding Dewald Brevis at deep cover off Ramakrishna Ghosh — the youngster’s maiden IPL wicket. Noor then ended Tilak Varma’s tentative stay. In the middle overs — balls 7 through 16 — Mumbai managed only 67 runs with 22 dots, puncturing any hope of acceleration. Having hit seven sixes in the powerplay, they managed only three in the remaining 14 overs. Hardik Pandya, under constant scrutiny, contributed 18 off 23. Mumbai finished at 159/7. On a surface where runs were available, it was an innings of chronic underachievement.
The Dube selection summed up CSK’s evening too. Dropping two catches, he had nowhere to hide. Not bowling either, his presence in the XI baffled — one fan in the stands captured the mood perfectly, shouting to Gaikwad amid pin-drop silence after the Dhir reprieve: “Rutu, please place Dube as Impact Sub.”
Dhir holds the innings together
If there was a Mumbai player who could hold his head up, it was Naman Dhir. Arriving at No. 3 with the score at 1, he carried the innings with a measured 57 off 37 — four fours and three sixes — providing the spine around which others came and went. He picked his moments carefully, finding the gaps when the field set and clearing the ropes when the length invited it. His dismissal in the 17th over, caught at deep midwicket off Jamie Overton, effectively ended Mumbai’s hopes of posting anything threatening. Without him, 159 would have looked considerably worse.
Pure rescue act vibes! 💪
🎥 Catch the glimpses of Naman Dhir’s gritty 57(37) that kept the momentum going for #MI 💙
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Gaikwad steps up
The weight of captaincy has sat heavily on Ruturaj Gaikwad this season. A confidence-inducing fifty in the previous game had steadied him somewhat, but one box remained unticked — a match-winning innings of substance at home, a ground where the crowd greets him with ear-splitting noise at the toss regardless of his returns. There is plenty of chatter around his failure to lead with his batting. Saturday went some way to quietening it.
Sanju Samson fell early for 11, Bumrah producing the key breakthrough. Urvil Patel’s breezy 24 off 12 ended just as it was getting interesting, Ghazanfar finding the stumps. Gaikwad had a job to do, with Kartik Sharma — bought for Rs 14.2 crore and still searching for his footing — for company.
Kartik, batting at No. 4, delivered his maiden IPL fifty with a performance that showed he can bat in different tempos. The gun celebration — channelling Sahibzada Farhan — announced his arrival emphatically. But the innings that anchored the chase was Gaikwad’s.
Typically conservative in powerplays, he found two boundaries and a six off Boult after Samson’s dismissal to set the tone early. When Kartik arrived, Gaikwad shifted gears — calculative, unhurried, ice-cold. For three overs in the middle, CSK didn’t manage a boundary. The panic was nowhere visible. He finished 67 not out off 48, steering Chennai home with 11 balls to spare.
Simply beautiful batting! 🤌
🎥 Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kartik Sharma making it look effortless during their brilliant partnership 🤝
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Needing five wins from six remaining games, two of which come against Lucknow — another side in the bottom half of the table — Chennai will feel this is the timely boost their season needed. Consistency has repeatedly eluded them, and this win came despite perplexing selection calls. Whether it is the start of a genuine run or another false dawn, only time will tell. What Saturday was, unambiguously, was the night Gaikwad led from the front when it mattered most.
Brief scores: MI 159/7 (Dhir 57, Rickelton 37; Kamboj 3/32, Noor 2/26) lost to CSK 160/2 (Gaikwad 67*, Kartik 54, Urvil 24; Bumrah 1/20) by 8 wickets
