Sanju Samson became the first Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter to score an Indian Premier League (IPL) hundred against Mumbai Indians on Thursday. This was Samson's second hundred for his new franchise and in this edition as the five-time champions posted 207/6 in 20 overs after being sent to bat first by Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya. Earlier, Samson had scored IPL 2026's first century against Delhi Capitals.
Continuing his rich form from the T20 World Cup 2026, Samson stood tall at one end even when his teammates fell at the other end. On a wicket where none of the CSK batters were able to convert their starts into a big one, Samson batted sensibly, and picked the gaps well.
Despite the fall of wickets at the other end, Samson's clean hitting of the ball kept the scoreboard ticking for CSK as they raced to 73/2 in the powerplay with the CSK opener scoring almost the half of those runs. The right-hander reached his fifty in the 11th over with a four off Ashwani Kumar in 26 balls.
Samson was most brutal against Hardik Pandya, clobbering the rival skipper for 18 runs in an over that included 4, 6, 4 and 4. Towards the end, Samson was kept quiet for almost three overs, before the right-hander went hard in the final over against rookie Krish Bhagat. With two sixes and a four in the 20th over, Samson brought up his hundred on the final ball.
He remained not out at 101 off 54 balls, studded with 10 fours and six sixes.
Records galore for Sanju Samson
In the process, Samson went into record books as he became the fourth batter to score two IPL hundreds for CSK. Shane Watson, Murali Vijay and Ruturaj Gaikwad, all had scored two for CSK previously. In fact Samson became the first CSK batter to scored a hundred against Mumbai Indians, something stalwarts like MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina couldn't achieve.
Before Samson, the highest individual score by a CSK batter against Mumbai Indians in IPL was 88 not out by current captain Ruturaj Gaikwad in Dubai in 2021. He also became the second batter after Watson (in 2018) to score two hundreds for CSK in a single IPL edition. Watson is currently the batting coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.
This hundred also took Samson on level with KL Rahul (both on five) for most IPL hundreds. Virat Kohli (8), Jos Buttler (7) and Chris Gayle (6) take the first three spots in the list. Samson also equalled Rohit Sharma on eighth T20 hundreds among the Indians in the list which is jointly headed by Kohli and Abhishek Sharma (both on 9 each).
Earlier, only Rohit Sharma and Sanath Jayasuriya (while playing for Mumbai Indians) had registered centuries in MI vs CSK, as per a CricViz reserach. Interestingly, all three hundreds have come at the Wankhede Stadium.
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