Mumbai Indians (MI) suffered an eight-wicket defeat in their IPL 2026 clash against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk on Saturday (May 2).

After winning the toss and electing to bat, MI posted a below-par 159/7 in 20 overs. Top-order batter Naman Dhir anchored Mumbai's innings with a fighting 57 off 37 balls.

CSK comfortably chased down the target of 160 in 18.1 overs. Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (67* off 48) and Kartik Sharma (54* off 40) put together an unbroken 98-run stand for the third wicket to seal the victory.

Following the loss, MI’s playoffs chances are hanging by a thread with 4 points from 9 matches. To stay in contention, the franchise must win all their 5 remaining games to reach 14 points, while also relying on favorable results from other fixtures to improve the poor Net Run Rate.

Speaking during the post-match presentation, MI skipper Hardik Pandya reflected on a season where the team struggled to find consistency and momentum, admitting that it has simply not gone according to plan.

Pandya noted that while the team aimed for a score around 180-190, they lost momentum after the first 10 overs and failed to finish strongly.

"Not the season, I feel, not just the night. Yeah, they played better, they bowled better, they fielded better, and they batted better. (180 par for this track?) Yeah, I think at one point of time, we were looking to get around 180, 190. Should have been a good total, but yeah, we could not get the momentum post 10 overs, could not get the finish as well,” Pandya said.

According to him, it was a difficult track where batters could not "get under the ball," requiring a more calculative approach that his team failed to execute.

“(Reason for not getting 180?) I mean, yeah, it was not easy to go straightaway and kind of play shots, which even their batters, after getting set, they could not really take on the bowlers. It was more about playing calculative cricket and, making sure that we have the right wickets in hand. At the same point of time, batters could not get under the ball, they bowled better. And yeah, just overall as a bowling unit, they were better and as a batting unit, we were not,” he explained.

When asked whether MI should have been more aggressive, Hardik Pandya suggested the team used the best options available but were simply outplayed by CSK's "smart cricket".

“I don't know what aggressive we would have been. I think we would have had to throw some fireballs to get them out. But yeah, it was, the bowling option which we had, we went with it and they just played smart cricket. And yeah, they were better,” he concluded.