CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana continued his run of success in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he captured three wickets to help the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) record a convincing 27-run victory over Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 55th match of the Tournament played at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old right-arm fast bowler returned figures of three for 37 from four overs as DC were restricted to 140 for eight after CSK had put up a respectable total of 167 for eight having elected to bat first.
Pathirana, who has taken over the death-bowling specialist role at CSK from the West Indian Dwayne Bravo, proved his capabilities once again with a destructive late burst that derailed DC’s run-chase.
This was the second time that Pathirana had taken a three-wicket haul in this current IPL season following his Man-of-the-Match winning performance against the Mumbai Indians at the same venue.
Pathirana also brought his wicket-tally to 13 from just eight matches with 12 of those coming in the death-overs – the most by a bowler this season – and has an impressive economy rate of 7.81.
This time Pathirana was introduced into the attack in the 13th over when Manish Pandey was threatening to take the game away from CSK having hoisted two sixes and a boundary during his 29-ball cameo.
Pathirana struck in the last ball of the 13th over by dismissing the danger man Pandey with a full-length delivery as the batsman was looking to smash it across.
Pathirana followed up with the wicket of Axar Patel in the 18th over as the batsman mistimed the lofted shot towards long-on and Ajinkya Rahane went on to complete an easy catch.
Pandey and Rilee Rossouw had steadied things with a 59-run stand for the fourth wicket and DC were hoping to accelerate the scoring-rate during the last few overs.
Pathirana suffered a minor setback as he was hit for three successive boundaries by Lalit Yadav in the last over. However, Pathirana had the final laugh as he uprooted the stumps of Yadav in the penultimate ball of the innings.
Earlier, CSK scored 49 runs in the Powerplay thanks to a cluster of boundaries from Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ajinkya Rahane.
Shivam Dube and Ambati Rayudu then gave the innings impetus, plundering 23 runs off off-spinner Yadav in the 14th over.
After that, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja forged a rapid 38-run stand for the seventh wicket off just 18 balls.
Chief scores Chennai Super Kings: 167/8 in 20 overs (Raturaj Gaikwad 24, Ajinkya Rahane 21, Shivam Dube 25, Ambati Rayudu 23, Ravindra Jadeja 21, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 20, Axar Patel 2/27, Mitchell Marsh 3/18).
Delhi Capitals: 140/8 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 27, Rilee Rossouw 35, Axar Patel 21, Deepak Chahar 2/28, Matheesha Pathirana 3/37).
