On two separate occasions during the match against Lucknow Super Giants, Chennai Super Kings conceded four sixes in four balls. Defending 187 runs at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, it proved fatal for the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side, who were chasing a top four spot in the 2026 Indian Premier League season.
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After a slow start to the season, Chennai have finally started to put together some consistent results. Four wins from their last five matches meant that CSK still had an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs. However, everything came crashing down on Friday, when Chennai were blown away by a magnificent innings of 90 runs by Mitchell Marshwho on May 15 looked in a domineering touch.
Playing on a package that had good bounce and delivery for the seamers, Marsh slammed seven sixes and nine boundaries before being run out in the 12th over of the game. But by the time Marsh left, the damage had already been done.
In today’s IPL Play of the Day, we look at how a 16-ball stretch spoiled CSK’s night at the Ekana Stadium on May 15.
On Friday, the Chennai Super Kings fast bowlers had one clear task: find the length to help the LSG pacers make life miserable for the Chennai top order in the first innings. It was an area of great length where Lucknow’s pacemakers seemed to be at work, extracting enough slip and bounce to speed several batsmen into errors.
Youngsters Kartik Sharma and Shivam Dube played valuable knocks to take CSK to a fighting total of 187. The bowlers just needed to target the same areas and test the LSG batting early in the innings.
But that plan quickly fell apart as Mitchell Marsh took a liking to the CSK pacers and dismantled them on Friday.
Marsh’s incredible onslaught began in the fifth over of the match when he dismantled Anshul Kamboj for four consecutive sixes. Marsh cut and pulled Kamboj with absolute authority as the young pacer repeatedly tried to hit a hard length, hoping the extra bounce would surprise the batsman. Kamboj may have forgotten that Marsh was born and raised in Perth, arguably the home of some of the most tumultuous pitches in the world.
The West Australian quickly found his rhythm and took on the CSK pacer. Kamboj, the highest wicket-taker for ČSK this season, cut a pitiful figure after the match, conceding 63 runs in just 2.4 overs, the worst figure in the tournament among bowlers who have bowled less than three overs in an innings.
Perhaps it was Kamboj and more importantly Ruturaj Gaikwad’s failure that CSK simply didn’t think to change their ploy quickly enough. Cutters, yorkers or even wider lines could have helped on the surface instead of repeatedly feeding the top-class pace hitter with a hard length delivery on a pitch that offered the ideal bounce for Marsh.
After a dreadful spell of overs, Kamboj came back to bowl again in the 17th over against Nicholas Pooran. By then, the game was effectively over, but the penalties continued. Pooran smashed him for four more sixes in a row, making Kamboj the first bowler this season to concede two separate sequences of four sixes in four balls in the same match.
The numbers will look brutal against the young pacer. 2.4-0-63-0 figures will remain associated with the Kamboj name long after this game. However, Friday’s loss reflected more on the management of ČSK and their inability to react under pressure.
A young fast bowler having a bad day is not uncommon in the IPL. Allowing the same plan to continue despite repeated punishment is where questions begin to arise. Gaikwad, standing in the middle, may have needed to step in earlier, calm the bowler down, change the field or simply ask him to try something else. None of that happened.
Instead, CSK kept waiting for the hard length to work its magic as Marsh and Pooran sent the ball into the stands.
“I think we were just trying to hit that hard length, the right Test match length. We felt there was something there and the ball was biting well, but I think they played some extraordinary shots. We lacked execution in a few areas and on a few balls as well,” Gaikwad said after the match.
For a side still trying to build its identity after the MS Dhoni era, that was perhaps the biggest lesson from the defeat in Lucknow. Adaptability is as important as execution. On Friday night, CSK were found to be missing in both.
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Published on:
May 16, 2026 07:57 IST
