New Delhi (India) May 6: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) kept their qualification hopes for IPL 2026 alive with an eight-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals (DC). CSK remain sixth on the table with 10 points from 10 games while DC are seventh with eight points from 10 games.

DC Batting Struggles After Decent Start

Delhi Capitals won the toss and decided to bat first. The openers KL Rahul and Pathum Nissanka gave the team a positive start hitting a couple of boundaries each but they failed to convert their start. Nissanka was caught in the deep mistiming a slower delivery by Mukesh Choudhary for 19 while KL Rahul was caught in the deep hitting straight to the spinner Akeal Hosein. Delhi reached 37/2 in powerplay. 

Middle order was further dismantled by left arm chinaman Noor Ahmad as he bagged two wickets of Karun Nair and Nitish Rana who went for risky sweep shots to left arm spinner. Later some fighting display from Tristan Stubbs (38 from 31) and Sameer Rizvi (40* from 24) took DC closer to 150 with 65 runs partnership in the death overs.

Kartik and Samson Seal Comfortable Chase

CSK too got to a slow start and failed to create momentum and was seen only having 44 runs at the powerplay as they lost their captain Ruturaj Gaikwad. Urvil Patel hit a couple of sixes and a four as he played a cameo knock of 17 runs of nine balls.

After the fall of Urvil Patel they were seen to be on 45/2 at the seventh over and then Kartik Sharma was sent at no.4. He partnered with Samon and together they made a massive century partnership which remained unbroken. Kartik smashed an impressive 41 from 31 balls which contained four fours and two sixes.

Ruturaj Praises Team Effort and Bowling Unit

Ruturaj Gaikwad, CSK Captain said, “I think even initially after the 2nd and 3rd game, Flem and myself were positive, we were closer to what we were last year. Sanju had come along and the bowling was doing well. We then got a couple of wins and everyone started to gel together. On the batting side, more than grateful to have Sanju after the tournament he had in the WC, he's our backbone, but it's the bowlers who do the job. Akeal and Jamie come and silently do the job, Anshul is someone who does his job silently, he had a bad game today, but they've all come well together. We don't really well, we just let each other know what the wicket is doing and then assess the situation. Then it's all about how the match is going,” regarding the match.

Playing Xl's: CSK AND DC

Delhi Capitals- KL Rahul (WK), Pathum Nissanka, Karun Nair, Tristan Stubbs, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel (C), Ashutosh Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav and T Natarajan.

Chennai Super Kings- Sanju Samson (WK), Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary and Gurjapneet Singh.