MUMBAI: In terms of a passionate fan following, no team rivals the Chennai Super Kings. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina are revered in the IPL like no other players for their performances. Given the impressive way Sanju Samson has started his CSK innings, one can expect he will soon enjoy the same kind of love and adulation.
Following his unbeaten 115 versus Delhi Capitals, which was his fourth game for the new franchise, Samson smashed his second century of the IPL season to play a starring role in CSK’s crushing 103-run win over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. It is CSK’s third win in seven matches. MI have now lost five games out of seven.
With the rest of their batting floundering, Samson once again rescued his team, scoring a sublime unbeaten 101 off 54 balls, studded with 10 fours and six sixes, to help them reach 207/6.
In reply, the home side never recovered from a disastrous start, falling to 11/3, and were all out for 104.
MI’s chase never took off. Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein got MI opener Danesh Malewar playing a nervous prod to be caught behind in the first over and left-arm pacer Mukesh Choudhary had the dangerous Quinton de Kock chopping the ball on to his stumps. Naman Dhir was bowled neck and crop while going for a wild slog against Hosein.
At the end of the powerplay period, MI’s innings had only crawled to 29/3, with Choudhary bowling an inspired spell of 3-0-15-1.
It was a big-hearted effort from Chaudhary whose mother died in the lead-up to this game but showing great courage he put back his personal grief to play the match.
On a pitch where the ball was coming on nicely to the bat, Chaudhary was able to get a little bit of swing, and allowed the batters no room to free their arms.
In the seventh over, Anshul Kamboj conceded just one run, leaving MI to get 178 from 78 balls. Suryakumar Yadav broke the shackles with three fours off Choudhary’s final over to help MI touch 50 in 8.3 overs.
To the MI fans’ dismay, last game’s match-winner, Tilak Varma, also couldn’t repeat his heroics. His innings was cut short at 37 (29b) when he chopped on trying to smash Hosein. Only two batters got into double figures. Apart from Varma, Suryakumar Yadav made 35 off 30 balls.
Akeal Hosein was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-1-17-4.
Samson special
The value of Samson’s knock could be gauged from the fact that the next best score for CSK was skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 22. It was also impressive because of the way Samson took the extra responsibility to cover up for the loss of their in-form batter Ayush Mhatre who suffered a hamstring injury in the previous game.
There were no easy runs to be had after CSK were put into bat. Spearhead Jasprit Bumrah (4-0-31-1) was sharp while spinner AM Ghazanfar was at his best in a spell of 4-0-25-2. Left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar also picked up two wickets, adding to the four he took in the last game, to provide good support. But Samson soaked in all the pressure. He ensured the innings didn’t fall apart even though CSK kept losing wickets at regular intervals, keeping his end intact to return unbeaten.
He completed his century in dramatic style with a four off the last ball of the innings.
The most impressive part of his knock was how he finished the innings. At 149/4 after 15 overs, CSK’s hopes of a fighting total depended completely on Samson. Bumrah had two overs left. The seasoned player smartly avoided risks against the MI spearhead, targeting the other three overs instead. He smashed 15 runs in the 16th over (bowled by Krish Bhagat) and 18 runs in the 18th over (bowled by Ashwani Kumar), before plundering 16 runs in the final over (bowled by Bhagat).
