Young batting prodigy from Mumbai, Ayush Mhatre made his Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a heroic fashion, hitting 32 runs off just 15 balls to send alarm bells ringing in the Mumbai Indians camp. Mhatre, who came into the team as a replacement for CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, had already impressed the franchise’s management with his cameos in training sessions. When Gaikwad was ruled out for the remainder of the season, Chennai didn’t even have to think twice before offering him a contract.

Mhatre’s cameo lit up the CSK camp but the middle-order couldn’t quite reach the momentum they should’ve. Mumbai Indians fought back well to restrict the Super Kings to a score of 176/5. MI reached the target with 9 wickets in hand and more than 4 overs to spare, highlighting the gulf between the two sides this season.

Though the defeat made playoffs qualification quite tricky for CSK, head coach Stephen Fleming didn’t shy away from pointing out the few positives that he saw in the team against MI.

“Yeah, so we saw, we’ve had a few players through at our trainings, and he was a player that stood out. It’s still very hard when you’re in a net situation to get a true gauge of a player, but, from a skill set, he was very impressive and a very composed young man, which is often just as important. So both MS and I were very impressed with the way he held himself together for the trial, and then, when the opportunity came up, we’ve obviously got a view to the future, and he was a name that was pretty easy to pick,” said Stephen in the post-match press conference, explaining how Mhatre impressed him and Dhoni in the nets before being given an IPL contract.

“Probably the position we’re in, and with the injury to Ruturaj and with form for others, it made it quite an easy decision to get him in there. And a stage that seems big, but it’s one that’s familiar. So we banked on him being comfortable with his surroundings, and he certainly looked all that, so it was an impressive debut,” he further said, explaining the decision to pick the Mumbai youngster.

CSK are placed bottom of the 10-team IPL points table, with just 2 wins in 8 matches so far. For them to finish top 4, a miracle is the need of the hour.