If it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni who made an impact first-up for the Chennai Super Kings, Matheesha Pathirana ensured to do the needful in the remainder of the contest against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede on Sunday.
Former captain Dhoni, in his 250th appearance for his franchise, blasted an unbeaten 20 off just four balls in the final over of the Super Kings’ innings to power them to 206/4 after the foundation was laid by captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (69 off 40 balls) and Shivam Dube (66 not out off 38 balls).
Pacer Pathirana, with his sling-arm action, then produced a breathtaking spell of bowling that helped the Super Kings thwart a class act from Rohit Sharma (105 not out off 63 balls) and wrap the game up by 20 runs.
Mumbai_ Chennai Super Kings' Matheesha Pathirana bowls during the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Sunday, April 14
Thanks to their former captain Rohit, MI were pretty much in the game despite losing Suryakumar Yadav for nought. Pathirana was the man to get rid of Surya, after he had accounted for Ishan Kishan (23).
Rohit, playing his characteristic strokes, nullified one of CSK’s main weapons with the ball, Bangladeshi left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman. With good support from Tilak Varma (31), Rohit also ensured the required run rate for MI stayed within reach.
But the script began to change from the 13th over of MI’s run chase, when Ravindra Jadeja conceded only six off six balls. Thereafter, the runs dried up while MI also lost Varma, captain Hardik Pandya, and the big-hitters — Tim David and Romario Shepherd — for very few runs.
While Pandya fell to Tushar Deshpande, David was picked up by Mustafizur while Pathirana foxed Varma by varying his pace before cleaning Shepherd up with a fuller-length ball. Running out of partners, Rohit was left with too much to do then.
Gaikwad and Dube’s innings aside, Dhoni’s 20th over carnage off Pandya, slamming the latter for a hat-trick of sixes, went on to make a big difference in the end. MI have themselves to blame as well for the number of freebies they bowled, while Rohit shelled Gaikwad when the CSK skipper was on 39.
That too was a factor as Gaikwad and Dube started blazing away soon after the let-off.
