Matheesha Pathirana shine as CSK beat MI, break ‘Chepauk jinx’ after 13 years

Chennai Super Kings was not able to beat Mumbai Indians on their home turf for more than a decade but on Saturday, the ‘yellow army’ broke that jinx! Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team defeated Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians by 6 wickets at Chepauk on Saturday. This was CSK‘s first win against MI in Chennai after 13 years. ‘Thala’ Dhoni won the toss and decided to send Mumbai Indians to bat first.

From pacers to seamers, the superb bowling attack by CSK bundled up MI for just 139 on the board. Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Deshpande and breakthrough wicket-taker Deepak Chahar completely dominated the first innings and didn’t let MI batters any room to score big shots.

Skipper Rohit Sharma went for duck. This was the 16th time that the MI skipper had gone back to pavilion for the score of zero. This is the most number of ducks that any batter has suffered in the IPL. Sharma’s bad form meant that the young batters of MI had to deliver and they didn’t disappoint. Nehal Wadhera’s 64 off 51 helped MI to get triple-digit score on the board. Apart from him, cameos by Tristan Stubbs and Suryakumar Yadav also kept MI ticking. But the score of 139 on a pitch like Chennai was sub-par by any standard.

CSK began their innings in super comfortable manner with Devon Conway making bulk of the runs. Finally, that winning single by Dhoni sealed the deal and Chepauk erupted in joyous celebrations.

Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings opening batter Ruturaj Gaikwad on Saturday said his team does not have any problem playing on any strip at the M A Chidambaram stadium because of the home advantage. Asked if this was the kind of pitch CSK would like to play, Gaikwad said, “It does suit our strength but the pitch is, I would say, slightly out of our control with the weather being slightly gloomy, rainy. Obviously it’s tough for the curator to make what we want.”

(With inputs from PTI)