Brief Score: Chennai Super Kings (208 for 5 in 19.2 overs) beat Lucknow Super Giants (203 for 8 in 20 overs) by five wickets in Chennai on Sunday. Scorecard | Highlighting
Chennai waited eight years for this day. Despite seeing highs and lows in recent seasons, they wanted Vijay — Vijay in a 180-plus chase that eluded them with two IPL titles and countless near misses. In that time, they have lifted the trophy twice without once chasing a target higher than 180. But in the era of Impact Players, CSK’s approach has started to look outdated.
On Sunday, the much-awaited Vijay arrived and came up with a six-hitting show from Urvil Patel. And it came in Chepauk, a few kilometers away where another Vijay finally arrived.
CSK made 204 with four deliveries to spare to secure their first chase of more than 180 since April 2018. The two crucial points moved them to fifth place with six wins from 11 matches, throwing them into an increasingly frantic mid-table race for the play-off spots.
More than points though, this win matters because of what it breaks. The 180-plus chase was a mental block, a ghost that haunted CSK during seasons of otherwise solid cricket. They blamed it on Sunday.
It was a tough pill to swallow for Lucknow Super Giants. They looked well on course for 220-plus after Josh Inglis set the tone at the top with a stunning 85 off 33 balls. LSG were 112 at the end of the ninth over – and then Jamie Overton’s three-wicket haul and Noor Ahmed’s miserly spell quietly dismantled their momentum in the middle overs.
URVIL COMES IN STYLE
But the real story was Urvil, who scored the joint fastest fifty in IPL history and finished with a 23-ball 65.
The 27-year-old from Gujarat has built a reputation as one of the most destructive domestic cricketers over the years. A hundred in 28 balls in the T20 format. A 41-ball hundred in List A cricket. Glimpses of that potential in CSK’s first season last season. At the beginning of this year, however, ČSK left him out. Only an injury to the prodigiously talented Ayush Mhatre opened the door. A few cameos earlier in the season hinted at what was to come without quite delivering. On Sunday, Urvil chose his moment.
During the over, he smashed five sixes in as many balls and tackled Avesh Khan and Digvesh Rathi with breathtaking purity of intent. Three of those sixes came in the fifth over Avesh – all aimed at mid-wicket, all hit with the same unhurried, charged swing. Digvesh did no better in his second over: two sixes, a boundary, then another six, as if Urvil was simply reminding the bowler of his options.
Fifty runs were scored in the last two overtimes alone. Urvil’s 42 off nine balls set CSK at 97 for 1 at the end of six – a platform that would have seemed unthinkable when Sanju Samson fell in the fourth over. Urvil had the chance to hit the fastest IPL fifty but he “slowed down” and took four more deliveries for the next eight runs.
That goal was a blow to the body. CSK have repeatedly struggled this season with Samson going cheap – middle-order, lack of runs and confidence, he has too often been left to run the team out of trouble instead of coming forward from a position of strength. But on Sunday, Urvil simplified the equation. By the time he finished in the powerhouse, the chase was already half won in his mind.
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Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
10 May 2026 20:09 IST
