Sanju Samson ended his poor start to the season with a century and led Chennai Super Kings to their first win in the IPL 2026. Ayush Mhatre and Jamie Overton also contributed as CSK defeated Delhi Capitals by 23 runs at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday, April 11.

A win boosted CSK from the bottom of the points table to the ninth position. Meanwhile, after four matches, the Delhi Capitals remain fourth in the table with two back-to-back defeats.

Both teams make two major changes to their playing elevens, with Dewald Brevis making a highly anticipated return from injury. CSK dropped Prashant Veer and Kartik Tyagi, who cost INR 28.4 crore combined in the auction. Delhi handed an IPL debut to Auqib Nabi, the fast bowler who has taken domestic cricket by storm, and dropped struggling Nitish Rana and Vipraj Nigam.

Sanju Samson goes big, Ruturaj Gaikwad fails again

After being forced to bat first, Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad avoided losing a wicket in the powerplay, with the former ending his single-digit run with his new team. Gaikwad failed again, scoring 15 runs off just 18 balls, and remains without a 30-plus score this season.

Samson and Ayush Mhatre then pulled off a stunning 113-run stand for the second wicket with the former scoring his fourth IPL century. Mhatre smashed 59 runs off just 36 balls before retiring out. Samson and Shivam Dube finished strong, taking CSK to a big total of 213 for 2.

Samson top-scored with 115 runs off 56 balls with the help of 15 fours and four sixes. After failing to reach a double-digit score in his first three innings in the yellow jersey, the under-pressure wicketkeeper batter played confident cricket, in a big boost to the team's remainder of the campaign.

Jamie Overston delivers career-best IPL figures to stun Delhi Capitals

KL Rahul and Pathum Nissanka quickly balanced the game with a 61-run stand for the first wicket. Khaleel Ahmed gave the hosts a breakthrough in the fifth over and then the Delhi fans witnessed a shock collapse.

Jamie Overton dismissed in-form Sameer Rizvi and David Miller to put CSK ahead in the game. Tristan Stubbs kept Delhi's hopes alive with a fighting 60 off 38 balls innings and took the game to the wire.

Overton struck again by removing Stubbs and Nabi in the death overs and ensured a big 23-run win for the five-time champions. Sanju Samson's unbeaten hundred and Overton's career-best figures of 4 for 18 in the IPL were the top moments of the day. Anshul Kamboj took three wickets to climb to the second position in the Purple Cap race with eight wickets in four innings.

CSK vs DC Playing XIs

Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Akeal Hosein (impact player)

Delhi Capitals: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul(w), Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (c), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Ahustosh Sharma (impact player), Auqib Nabi Dar, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar

Also read: Ruturaj Gaikwad under mounting pressure after Sanju Samson’s hundred for CSK