A strange twist of fate unfolded in a match no.7 of the IPL 2026 between Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium when ace batter Ayush Mhatre brought into the field a bat that had no bat brand, prompting the on-field umpire Abhijit Bhattacharya to accuse him of carrying an oversized bat to the crease
Mhatre, who signalled towards the dugout for a fresh set of bats, also failed the thickness test initially. However, the umpire quickly realised that he had held the bat gauge — a device used to measure the blade’s thickness — upside down, which caused the bat to get stuck during the check. After Mhatre protested the decision, Abhijit Bhattacharya promptly corrected his mistake, allowing Mhatre to begin his innings without further delay.
Video of the incident can be checked here:
UMPIRE TOOK TIME FOR CHECKING BAT OF AYUSH MHATRE #AyushMhatre #SanjuSamson #PBKS #CSK #PBKSvsCSK #ShreyasIyer pic.twitter.com/EJCgrDIVqD
— Somesh Jangra (@CelebrityGalax) April 3, 2026The 18 year old entered to replace Sanju Samson who was dismissed by Xavier Bartlett on the final ball of the fourth over to bat at number three. The child carried four balls to get his eyes in, but struck a series of boundaries later to raccle the next ten balls he met with 23 runs. Mhatre is undefeated with 23 hits out of 14, at the time of writing, with his captain Ruturaj Gaikwad.
In the meantime, CSK had a single change in their line up since the last encounter with RR with Matthew Short forced to give way to a youngster, Prashant Veer. Their opponents, however, entered the competition unchanged with a confidence in their combination of teamwork in their first game of the season where they got a victory over Gujarat Titans, rather easily.
CSK vs PBKS: Playing XIs
Chennai Super Kings
Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Noor Ahmed, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed
Impact Substitutes: Jamie Overton, Rahul Chahar, Matthew Short, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Gurjapneet Singh
Punjab Kings
Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact Substitutes: Suryansh Shedge, Priyansh Arya, Vishnu Vinod, Pravin Dubey, Hemant Brar
