Sanju Samson became the first Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batsman to score an Indian Premier League (IPL) set against Mumbai Indians on Thursday. This was Samson’s second hundred for his new series and in this edition the five-time champions posted 207/6 in 20 overs after Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya put him in to bat first. Earlier, Samson scored IPL 2026 maiden century against Delhi Capitals.
Samson, who continued his rich run of form from the T20 World Cup 2026, stood tall at one end even as his teammates slumped at the other end. On a wicket where none of the CSK batsmen were able to convert their start into a big one, Samson batted sensibly and picked the gaps well.
Despite wickets falling at the other end, Samson’s clean hitting of the ball kept the score going for CSK as they raced to 73/2 in the powerplay with the CSK opener scoring almost half of those runs. The right-hander reached his fifty in the 11th through Ashwani Kumar’s four in 26 balls.
Samson was at his most brutal against Hardik Pandya as he battered the opposing skipper for 18 runs in an over that included 4, 6, 4 and 4. Towards the end, Samson was quiet for almost three overs before the right-hander went hard in the final against rookie Krish Bhagat. With two sixes and a four in the 20th over, Samson brought up his hundred on the last ball.
He was not out on 101 off 54 balls, studded with 10 fours and six sixes.
Lots of entries for Sanju Samson
In the process, Samson entered the record books by becoming the fourth batsman to score two IPL hundreds for CSK. Shane Watson, Murali Vijay and Ruturaj Gaikwad all scored twice for CSK earlier. In fact, Samson became the first CSK batsman to score a hundred against Mumbai Indians, something that stalwarts like MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina could not achieve.
Before Samson, the highest individual score by a CSK batsman against Mumbai Indians in the IPL was 88 not out by current captain Ruturaj Gaikwad in Dubai in 2021. He also became the second batsman after Watson (in 2018) to score two hundreds for CSK in a single edition of the IPL. Watson is currently the batting coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.
This hundred also equaled Samson KL Rahul (both five) for most IPL hundreds. Virat Kohli (8), Jos Buttler (7) and Chris Gayle (6) occupied the top three spots in the list. Samson also equaled Rohit Sharma’s eighth T20 hundreds for Indians in a list jointly led by Kohli and Abhishek Sharma (both on 9).
Previously, only Rohit Sharma and Sanath Jayasuriya (while playing for Mumbai Indians) had registered centuries in MI vs CSK, according to CricViz research. Interestingly, all three hundreds arrived at the Wankhede Stadium.
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