Mumbai Indians' pace-bowling legend Lasith Malinga has retired and currently coaches the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2022. But his successor is here in form of Matheesha Pathirana, who made his debut for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Match 63 of IPL 2022.
CSK, however, lost the match by 7 wickets as they were outplayed by Gujarat Titans in all departments of the game.
Pathirana, who also comes from Sri Lanka, was a standout bowler for Chennai as he shone with the ball in hand. The world was in awe of him as soon as he began to bowl like Malinga to help defend the small total CSK has put on the board.
He picked up 2 wickets in his spell, removing Gujarat Titans' opener Shubman Gill for 18 and their captain Hardik Pandya for 7.
Gill was caught before the stumps, done in by the pace while Pandya was caught in the deep as he tried to launch an attack off the pacer.
Apart from these wickets, what caught fans' attention is not just his Malinga-like action but also the precision.
Pathirana continues to bowl some toe-crushing yorkers to ensure the GT batters did not have the runs come easy for them. He was the best bowler on show for CSK and even captain MS Dhoni was mighty impressed with him.
"With Pathirana, the margin of error is slim. He's got a good slower one and it will be tough to hit him if he bowls consistent pace. We will look to give people chances," said Dhoni at the post-match presentation ceremony.
This was some praise coming from a four-time IPL champion. But not to forget the praise Pathirana was getting on social media as fans began trending him on Twitter.
Check out some noted reactions below:
Baby AB in Mumbai,
Baby Malinga in Chennai.
This is the Multiverse of Madness of IPL fans.— Harshit (@OffTheMarkk_) May 15, 2022
A dream debut for Matheesha Pathirana _#MatheeshaPathirana #CSKvsGT #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/D0bZn42fo5
— Ranjeet - Wear Mask_ (@ranjeetsaini7) May 15, 2022
#malinga #CSKvsGT pic.twitter.com/i5fubdJTvp
— Safan_Mhd (@Mhdsafan54) May 15, 2022
Another loss for CSK but great to see Junior Malinga #Pathirana bowl, was a treat to watch him in action. __
Great future ahead but needs to see that the bowling doesn't strain him out. _#CSKvsGT #IPL2022
— Aditya Singh Rawat (@Catslayer_999) May 15, 2022
We've got Indian Starc
CSK Yuzi as Solanki
Baby Malinga
And of course Devon Conway
Too many positives this season pic.twitter.com/4Q8E15jpSY— A__u_o__ (@Im_Ashu2004) May 15, 2022
CSK ordered malinga from srilanka but what they received is advanced version of kedar jadhav__...
(Malinga+jadhav=Matheesha Pathirana__)#BoliBachchan #GT#ACKOForTheFans | #Contestalert #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/Tc0cikcUmQ
— shiva (@VijayFreak5) May 15, 2022
Saha steal show as GT thrash CSK
Wriddhiman Saha starred with an unbeaten 67 as Gujarat Titans completed a comfortable seven-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings.
After the bowlers produced a brilliant show to restrict Chennai to a below-par 133/5, Saha carried his bat throughout the innings to chase the total with five balls to spare.
The result also means that Gujarat have confirmed their spot in the top two of the points table, which means they will get to play in Qualifier 1 at Kolkata on May 24.
Saha got Gujarat off to a brisk start in pursuit of 134, taking three boundaries off Mukesh Choudhary in the opening over, two of them coming through an inner edge past stumps and top-edge over keeper. In Choudhary`s next over, Saha was dropped on 21 by Ruturaj Gaikwad at point amidst the right-hander collecting two boundaries.
From there onwards, it was no looking back for Saha, pulling Simarjeet Singh over deep mid-wicket for six in the fifth over followed by thumping one over the bowler`s head for a boundary. Saha`s fast and furious start allowed Shubman Gill to take his time and bring out the pull as well as sweep to take boundaries off Mitchell Santner.
With inputs from IANS
