Twitter Reactions: Ayush Mhatre celebrates 29-ball fifty during CSK vs PBKS IPL 2026 clash

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) arrived at their home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium, during their second encounter of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, following their struggling batting performance in the opening game against the Rajasthan Royals, which they lost by a massive margin. 

Their number three batter, young Ayush Mhatre, was bounced out by the short ball of the left-arm pacer, Nandre Burger, and he walked into the middle against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a similar situation when they lost Sanju Samson early in the innings, having put into bat first on a surface, which looked good for batting.

Ayush Mhatre completes maiden IPL 2026 fifty in 29 balls

Mhatre, on a golden duck, broke the jail with a boundary against the pitched-up delivery of Xavier Bartlett. The batter got his left leg out of the way and heaved it over mid-on before holding his shape and whipping it over the mid-wicket region for a boundary. He smashed his third successive four of the over in the square leg region.

The Mumbai-born went into the leg side to take his leg out of the way against Vijaykumar Vyshak and hoisted it high over wide long-on for a massive six before pulling the short ball from Marco Jansen over the square leg region for another over boundary.

See Also: Who is Prashant Veer? CSK's young all-rounder makes IPL 2026 debut against PBKS

On the fifth ball of the seventh over, he picked up the slower delivery and launched it over the mid-on ropes for another six. With another over boundary against the full delivery of Marcus Stoinis, Mhatre celebrated his fifty in just 29 balls before backing it up with another six on the very next delivery.

It gave Ruturaj Gaikwad the chance to get settled and play the second fiddle in the middle for his 27 runs in 20 balls as the Super Kings crossed the 100-run mark at the halfway mark.

Brief Scores: CSK 118/2 (Ayush Mhatre 69*, Yuzvendra Chahal 1/21) vs PBKS

Fans react to Ayush Mhatre’s aggressive half-century for CSK

Here is how the fans have reacted to the aggressive fifty for the Super Kings by Mhatre-