Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming was all pleased after the franchise defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) on May 2 in Mumbai in the ongoing IPL 2026. CSK defeated MI by 8 wickets in a one-sided contest.

Hardik Pandya, MI's captain, won the toss and elected to bat. Ryan Rickelton scored 37 points, while Will Jacks failed again. The Mumbai Indians labored to 159/7 in 20 overs, with Naman Dhir top-hitting with 57 and Suryakumar Yadav on 21. Captain Hardik Pandya was disappointed after scoring 18 runs in 23 balls.

Sanju Samson was dismissed for 11 runs in retaliation, but CSK prevailed thanks to skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad's unbeaten 67 runs. CSK won the match by 8 wickets and 11 balls, with Urvil Patel scoring 24 in 12 balls and debutant Kartik Sharma hitting 54* in 40 balls.

Fleming talked about the 20-year-old Kartik Sharma, who was sent to bat ahead of Shivam Dube and Dewald Brevis and hammered four fours and three sixes, in his maiden IPL fifty.

“You have the young players, so there are two parts to it. One is how you introduce them. It is a big stage, no matter what they’ve been doing at the domestic level. So, understanding their mentality is really important, and it is a big step up. They can have all the talent in the world, but the temperament is what we’re looking for. And his introduction was tough at the start, and then he had a little bit of time out where he worked hard, and today was a good reward for that.

He’s a fine player, and he was expensive in the auction because others see that as well. And tonight it was good to see the temperament as well as the skill on show, and he will just get better and better. So, it’s a nice spot for him, and the timing was right. So, we’re really pleased and proud of what he did today,” Fleming said in the post-match press conference.

In the same vein, he also praised the performance of pacer Ramakrishna Ghosh, who made his IPL debut for CSK. He bowled three overs, giving away 24 runs, and dismissed the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav.

“His improvement in the recent weeks has been noticeable. He has been training really well in our workout at the academy. We have two grounds that we use. It’s been very impressive. So disappointing that he was injured towards the end, but the other point was he does bat and bat well, and that’s an area of big improvement. So, he can genuinely be called an all-rounder," Fleming concluded.

Thanks to this win, CSK are now placed 6th on the points table with 8 points to their name. They will next face the Delhi Capitals on Tuesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

(ANI inputs)