CHENNAI: Pacer Matheesha Pathirana starred with the ball as Chennai Super Kings eased to an emphatic six-wicket victory against Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2023 match in Chennai on Saturday.
After restricting Mumbai to 139/8 in their 20 overs, CSK cruised to victory with six wickets in hand and 14 balls to spare.
Devon Conway top-scored for CSK with 44 from 42 balls, while Ruturaj Gaikwad slammed 30 from 16 balls as their opening stand of 46 from 4.1 overs laid the foundation for CSK's victory.
Earlier, Sri Lankan Pathirana's fiery spell of 3/15 was instrumental in Mumbai finishing on a below-par 139/8 after they were put into bat.
A maiden IPL half-century by left-handed batter Nehal Wadhera (64 from 51 balls) rescued Mumbai after a horror start, as the visitors had lost three wickets by the third over.
For CSK, pacers Pathirana (3/15), Deepak Chahar (2/18) and Tushar Deshpande (2/24) did most of the damage, while spinner Ravindra Jadeja (1/37) dented MI's hopes as he bagged the big wicket of Suryakumar Yadav.
Pathirana in his four-over spell didn't concede a single boundary, while bowling 12 dot balls.
After opting to bowl, CSK bowlers left MI in disarray, reducing the opposition to 16/3 by the end of the third over.
Chahar picked up the wickets of Ishan Kishan (7) and MI skipper Rohit Sharma (0) while Tushar Deshpande provided the first breakthrough by removing the dangerous Cameron Green, getting him bowled for 6.
MI lost three wickets in space of 7 deliveries whilst scoring only 1 run and looked in deep trouble before Suryakumar Yadav (26) and Wadhera began the rescue act.
Surya and Wadhera added 55 runs in 7 overs and began to look more assured in the middle before Ravindra Jadeja fired a quicker one to dismiss the former.
Surya, who regained form in the previous game against Punjab Kings, held the key for MI after the early setbacks, and he looked to be guiding the team towards safety when Jadeja's faster one got the better of him.
Tim David, of whom much was expected, lasted just 4 balls, scoring two runs before being dismissed by Deshpande.
Pathirana, who seems to be getting better with every game, gave away 2 runs in the 18th over and 5 runs in the final over as CSK strangled Mumbai Indians with pace, for a change. The MI batters could not get away the slinger from Sri Lanka in a modest performance.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 139/8 in 20 overs (Nehal Wadhera 64; Matheesha Pathirana 3-15, Deepak Chahar 2-18) lost to Chennai Super Kings 140/4 in 17.4 overs (Devon Conway 44, Ruturaj Gaikwad 30; Piyush Chawla 2-25) by six wickets. Agencies
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