Good morning!

If you're a CSK fan, your coffee might taste a bit sour after reading this, if it didn't already after last night's result. But that won't stop you from catching up with today's edition of the Pulse, your 2-minute morning scan of the IPL universe, will it?

Last night in five lines

1. PBKS beat CSK at Chepauk and that shouldn't come as a surprise considering it's happened four times in a row now.

2. Ayush Mhatre, or the Virar Express, as he's been christened, got CSK off to a blazing start and finished with 73 off 43.

3. It was two other Mumbai boys, Shivam Dube (45) and Sarfaraz Khan (32), helping Chennai breach 200. A lot of Mumbai flavour in the Super Kings' spread.

4. Priyansh Arya bagged the PoTM for his 39 off 11. In case you are averse to math, that's a strike rate of 354.55 only.

5. Shreyas Iyer's fifty ensured his team encountered no bumpy patches in their pleasant cruise to the target.

Oh, that happened

Shreyas Iyer was fined INR 24 lakh for maintaining a slow over rate. Since it was the team's second offence, in as many games mind you, the rest of the playing XI, impact player included, copped fines of either INR 6 lakh or a quarter of their match fees (whichever is lower, mercifully).

The Kings were so slow, in fact, that they copped the slow over-rate penalty for the last two overs, meaning they had only four men outside the inner ring and those two overs cost them 27 runs.

Pulse Awards

The pulling-away award goes to Ayush Mhatre for being devilishly good against the short ball. He might, in fact, be the best.

Sanju Samson and Kartik Sharma are joint winners of the new-season-blues award for, maybe, hopefully, saving their best for later.

Sanju Samson also wins the thala-for-a-reason award for scoring a perfect 7 runs off 7 balls.

The scoring-in-the-V award goes to Sarfaraz Khan for hitting all his boundaries where it would please Sunil Gavaskar.

The time-insensitive award goes to the Punjab Kings for failing to bowl their overs in time twice in a row.

Talking Point

CSK have now lost their first two games in a season for the second time since 2022 and they're looking a far cry from their old, settled self. Is it the disappointing auction catching up? Ruturaj Gaikwad admitted as much when he had said before the PBKS match, "We didn't have the best of squads last year... in the second year of the cycle, you have limited options, a limited pool available."

Meanwhile, the script has flipped for the Punjab Kings and that they came into this game as favourites is enough evidence of a changing order.

The Chatter

"My family background is of teachers, even my sister is a teacher so I think I would've also become a teacher. Now there is no chance," said Priyansh Arya after bagging the Player of the Match award. Never say never!

"We have two good wristspinners bowling in tandem, especially in the middle after the Powerplay. But I think [it was a] slight off day for both of them, so I think that is what cost us," said Ruturaj Gaikwad, reflecting on what went wrong.

Stat Snack

This was the fifth time CSK lost to PBKS after scoring more than 200 - the most by a team against an opponent in T20s.

Gossip Column

A leading time-management coach is in for a pay-day after being approached by one of the franchises. Meanwhile, the birdies also say that another franchise is seeking a suitable financial advisor after a couple of big investments haven't paid off.

Today's watchlist

217 is the average first innings score at Delhi where the Capitals will take on the Mumbai Indians. Afternoon game, placid Delhi pitch, should be runs galore.

There's more action to come with today being the first double-header of the season. The Gujarat Titans take on the Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad later in the day.

Reckless prediction for today

Both games will end in a tie and be decided in the Super Over.