MUMBAI, India (AP) — Sanju Samson smashed his second century this season for Chennai Super Kings and Akeal Hosein dismantled Mumbai Indians’ top order with a four-wicket haul in a 103-run win in the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
Samson followed his unbeaten century against Delhi Capitals with a 101 not out off 54 balls to anchor Chennai to 207-6.
Hosein (4-17) jolted Mumbai’s chase inside the power play with two wickets in his first two overs, and fast bowler Mukesh Choudhary bowled Quinton de Kock for 7 before Mumbai got bowled out for 104 in 19 overs.
It was Mumbai’s worst-ever defeat in the IPL and the first time it lost three straight games at Wankhede in one season.
Hosein had young impact player Danish Malewar caught behind off the first ball and then clean bowled Naman Dhir with a ball that turned, bounced and gripped and when de Kock dragged Choudhary’s ball back onto his stumps Mumbai slumped to 11-3 inside the first 15 deliveries of its run chase.
Tilak Varma (37) and Suryakumar Yadav (35) were the only Mumbai batters to reach double-figures but never got going before both fell in Hosein’s return spell. Wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad (2-23) then killed off the chase by dismissing Hardik Pandya and Sherfane Rutherford off successive balls.
Earlier, Samson raised his hundred off the final ball with his 10th four of the innings and also smacked six sixes despite Mumbai briefly stemming the flow of runs through spinner Allah Ghazanfar, who ended up with 2-25.
“Really feels great to score a century at the Wankhede against MI,” Samson said. “We were losing few wickets so I thought it was important for a settled batsman to stay and that’s what I tried and that’s what happened today.”
Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s struggles continued, but his knock of 22 was the second most in Chennai’s total with Samson doing the bulk of the scoring at a strike rate of almost 200.
Pandya’s (0-38) two expensive overs with the new ball provided Chennai a solid platform of 73-2 in the power play with both Gaikwad and Sarfaraz Khan (14) falling against spinner Ghazanfar and Mitchell Santner (1-44).
Chennai middle-order batters played cameos with Dewald Brevis (21 off 11 balls) and Jamie Overton (15 off 7 balls) scoring at a brisk pace, but it was Samson’s aggression in the death overs that led Chennai past the 200-run mark.
Samson was on 85 off 48 balls but kept the strike to himself in the last over and completed his second century with two sixes off Krish Bhagat (0-31) and then nailed the final short ball to mid-wicket boundary.
“We couldn’t cope after losing early wickets in the power play,” Pandya said. “We should have just batted better. They batted on the same pitch … Sanju played an outstanding knock and their batters kept coming and chipping away to a decent total.”
Mumbai slipped to No. 8 after just two wins from seven games, while Chennai moved to No. 5 on better net run-rate then Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans.
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