By Prakash Nair 
Chennai, April 11: They finally did it. Three weeks into IPL 2026, four matches played, and Chennai Super Kings have their first two points. It took a century from a man who badly needed one, a bowling performance that held its nerve when everything suggested it might not, and a crowd that refused to let their team feel alone out there.
CSK beat Delhi Capitals by 23 runs. Final scores: CSK 212/2, DC 189 all out.
Chepauk was loud all night. By the end it was something else entirely.
Sanju Samson Did Not Just Bat Well. He Batted Like A Man Settling A Debt.
Three games for CSK before tonight. Scores of nine, five, and seven. A big auction price, a fanbase that had been patient but was running out of patience, and questions everywhere about whether he could actually be what this team needed him to be.
He answered all of it in one innings.
From the very first over he looked different. Axar Patel had won the toss and chosen to bowl, which made sense, and Auqib Nabi Dar opened up for Delhi. Samson hit him for boundaries in consecutive deliveries like the occasion meant nothing to him. By the time the powerplay was done CSK had 61 on the board without losing a wicket and Samson had 45 of those off just 19 balls.
Gaikwad was at the other end being cautious, taking his time, getting 15 off 18 before Axar got him caught at deep mid-wicket in the seventh over. That was slightly frustrating but it barely registered because Ayush Mhatre walked in and picked up exactly where Samson had left off in terms of intent.
The partnership those two built was something. Seventy-nine runs. Delhi dropped both of them during it, two chances grassed in the field, and you could see the shoulders drop among the Delhi players every time it happened. Mhatre eventually retired out for 59 off 36, four sixes and three fours, making way for the bigger hitters in the final stretch. A brilliant contribution from a twenty-year-old who plays big moments like they are just another Tuesday.
Then Samson kept going. Obviously.
He reached his 90s and Chepauk held its breath in the way only this ground can. Natarajan bowling the 17th over. A ramp over third man. A flick off his hips. A drive to the boundary. And then at 99, one more to the ropes, and it was done.
Helmet off. Bat raised. The roar from the stands had been building for twenty minutes and it finally got to come out.
His first century for CSK. Fourth in the IPL overall. One hundred and fifteen not out off 56 balls, 15 fours, 4 sixes. And somewhere in that dugout MS Dhoni, sitting in street clothes with his calf injury, would have been smiling the quiet smile of a man who knows exactly what that kind of innings means for a team that has been starving for one.
CSK posted 212/2 and set Delhi a target of 213.
Delhi Thought They Had A Chance. CSK’s Bowlers Had Other Ideas.
To be fair to Delhi, they started the chase decently. Akeal Hosein bowled the first over and gave away a couple of no-balls, which is not ideal, and Rahul immediately hit him for a four and a six to settle any early nerves. Eight runs off the first over. The 213 target felt alive.
Then Khaleel Ahmed stepped up.
Hard length delivery, Rahul tried to pull, could not clear mid-wicket. Caught. Nineteen off ten balls. The KL Rahul who had scored 92 in the previous match, the man Delhi needed to bat long tonight, was walking off in the fifth over.
Three deliveries after that, Kamboj got Nissanka. Drove without moving his feet, chipped it straight to Dewald Brevis at mid-on. Two wickets in three balls. Sixty-one for two.
Then came the moment of the night in the bowling department. Gurjapneet Singh, who frankly has been one of the stories of this match from the moment he was named in the XI, came on and first ball, first delivery of his over, got Axar Patel caught at backward point by Sarfaraz Khan. Axar gone for one. Delhi’s captain dismissed without facing a single ball properly. Three wickets down for 66.
At that point the match was essentially done, though Delhi did not know it yet.
Sameer Rizvi, who had been the tournament’s best young batter coming into tonight, came and went quietly. David Miller arrived and looked dangerous for a bit. Then Jamie Overton bowled him through the gate, a cross-seam length ball that slid into middle and leg while Miller was backing away looking for room. The ball skidded through and took the bail. Miller stood there for a second, looked back at the stumps, and knew there was nothing to review.
Tristan Stubbs tried. That is the most honest thing you can say about Delhi’s second innings. He made fifty-odd off 30 balls, kept swinging, refused to give up when everyone else had. But CSK kept taking wickets regularly and the asking rate climbed beyond anything realistic. Noor Ahmad, who had been expensive and wicketless in his first three games this season, finally got one when Ashutosh Sharma went to sweeper cover off a legbreak. Overton cleaned up the tail.
Delhi finished 189 all out. They needed 213. The deficit was 23 runs.
The Numbers, For Those Who Want Them
CSK 212/2 in 20 overs
Sanju Samson: 115 not out, 56 balls, 15 fours, 4 sixes Ayush Mhatre: 59, 36 balls, retired out Ruturaj Gaikwad: 15, caught at deep mid-wicket off Axar
DC 189 all out in 20 overs
Pathum Nissanka: 41 off 24 balls KL Rahul: 19 off 10 balls Tristan Stubbs: fifty-plus off 30 balls
CSK wicket-takers: Khaleel Ahmed got Rahul Anshul Kamboj got Nissanka Gurjapneet Singh first-ball wicket, Axar Patel Jamie Overton bowled Miller, cleaned up the tail Noor Ahmad got Ashutosh Sharma
DC fall of wickets:
| RUN | Wicket |
| 61 | 1 |
| 61 | 2 |
| 66 | 3 |
| 76 | 4 |
| 121 | 5 |
| 149 | 6 |
| 154 | 7 |
The Bigger Picture
CSK’s season is not saved. Let us not get carried away. One win from four games still leaves them with plenty of ground to cover and the IPL table is tight enough that every match from here is significant.
But here is what this win does. It gives the dressing room air. It gives the captain something to build from. It gives Samson the knowledge that he belongs in yellow, which was arguably the thing this team needed to establish more than anything else. And it gives a fanbase that has been asked to be patient, that has watched three losses and sat through all the questions about rebuilds and transitions and whether this team knows who it is, a night they can actually enjoy.
The death-over bowling, which had been the headline concern all season, held up tonight. Not perfectly, but well enough. Gurjapneet Singh was outstanding and his first-ball IPL wicket is the kind of story you tell for years. Kamboj was disciplined. Khaleel got the big wicket early when it mattered most.
Delhi, for their part, have now lost two in a row after a bright start and will be doing some thinking of their own. Their top order falling in that middle powerplay cluster, three wickets for five runs between overs five and six, killed any realistic chance they had.
But tonight belongs to Chennai. To Samson. To a team that needed to remember it could play cricket.
They remembered.
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
