CSK vs MI, IPL 2023: Matheesha Pathirana leads Super Kings to a 6 wicket win over Mumbai

49th Match, IPL: Chennai Super Kings 140 for 4 (Conway 44, Gaikwad 30, Chawla 2-25) beat Mumbai Indians 139 for 8 (Wadhera 64, Suryakumar 26, Matheesha Pathirana 3-15) by six wickets

Matheesha Pathirana, Deepak Chahar, and Tushar Deshpande, Chennai Super Kings’ pace trio, combined to take seven wickets and keep Mumbai Indians to 139 on a pitch where the ball was stopping. Super Rulers never searched in inconvenience during the pursuit at Chepauk, where Ruturaj Gaikwad’s fast appearance in the initial four overs set them up for the six-wicket win.

Mumbai was 14 for 3 when Chahar struck twice in the third over; Pathirana put the brakes on in the death overs, despite the fact that Nehal Wadhera and Suryakumar Yadav contributed 55 runs to stage a recovery. Wadhera’s first T20 fifty turned out to be a solitary effort, and Mumbai only managed 17 runs in the final three overs while losing four wickets.

Despite the fact that third-place Lucknow Super Giants have an extra game in hand, the victory propels Super Kings to second place on the points table. In contrast, Mumbai remains in sixth place.

Matheesha Pathirana, middle- and death-overs specialist

In the seven matches this season, Pathirana has only been used before the eleventh over twice. For anybody to have bowled somewhere around 120 balls in that period, he has the best economy rate and normal during that stage.

Wadhera and Suryakumar had given Mumbai hope of a respectable total on Saturday, so he was brought on in the 13th over. Pathirana’s initial two overs went for just eight off the bat, and MS Dhoni saved his leftover overs for the demise. He came back to start the 18th over after the previous two overs were taken for 29 and he only scored two runs other than bowling Wadhera. He fired a yorker at middle stump at 145 kilometers per hour after seeing the batter make room.

Pathirana varied his speeds and lengths equally. That – joined with the two-paced nature of the pitch – could have been the reason Tristan Stubbs battled for timing, ultimately cutting to cover-point on being fixed by a slower ball. Pathirana finished with 3 runs for 15 runs, all of which came in the final overs. He continued to build on his reputation as the season’s best death bowler by bowling at least 60 balls in that phase.

Wadhera propels Mumbai to 139

With Tilak Varma out harmed for this game, Mumbai were feeling the loss of a strong center request hitter. Furthermore, compelled to modify after the top-request disappointment, Wadhera opened up after the powerplay when he delicately sliced Ravindra Jadeja for four to profound in reverse point, and afterward penetrated Moeen Ali to profound additional cover.

When Wadhera got some force, he looked sure to the point of continuing to go after turn: In the 11th over, Jadeja was slog-swept over short fine leg, but in the 14th over, he beat short fine leg with a second sweep off Maheesh Theekshana. He also sent Theekshana over long-on in the final five overs to make the first six of the innings.

Wadhera’s fifty took 46 deliveries when it was brought up in the seventeenth over, after which he cleared, pulled and scooped Jadeja for fours, despite the fact that his thump of 64 didn’t demonstrate enough.

Gaikwad starts in a hurry, Dube finishes in style

In the first four overs, Super Kings scored 46 runs, while Gaikwad scored 30. That included four fours and two sixes as he helped Devon Conway and the Super Kings get the chase going. Cameron Green hit a drive and a flick for four in the first over, and in the third, he turned the screw.

Mumbai presented left-arm seamer Arshad Khan, and Gaikwad went 6, 4, 4, 6: a swivel-pull over long leg, a pull over midwicket, a guide behind point, a punch past the bowler, and a pull over midwicket. Gaikwad was excused off the main bundle of the fifth over by Piyush Chawla, who again ended up being the champion entertainer with the ball for Mumbai.

Ajinkya Rahane hit Chawla for a four and a six, but in the ninth over, Chawla got the last laugh when he got a googly on the Super Kings batter. That occurred after defeating Gaikwad earlier using the leg spinner. In his four overs, Chawla only got 25 runs, and he was out in 11 overs.

Shivam Dube built on the foundation that Gaikwad had laid shortly after, and he provided the final push. Two sixes off debutant left-arm wrist spinner Raghav Goyal in the fourteenth over and one swung off Arshad Khan to Mumbai’s burrow two balls before the triumphant run took Super Rulers to an agreeable success after they had lost two and had a game cleaned out not long previously.