CSK get first chepauk win against MI in 13 years

Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana led an inspired pace attack to help Chennai Super Kings hammer Mumbai Indians by six wickets in a clash of IPL heavyweights on Saturday. Pathirana, who is called “Baby Malinga” for his slinging action similar to former Sri Lankan pace ace Lasith Malinga, returned figures of 3-15 to limit five-time winners Mumbai to 139-8 in Chennai.

New Zealand opener Devon Conway made 44 as M.S. Dhoni’s Chennai — four-time IPL champions —romped home with 14 balls to spare. Dhoni praised Pathirana, saying, “People who don’t have any clean action, batsmen have a difficult time picking it. But his consistency, pace makes him special.” Dhoni advised the youngster to stay away from Test cricket and concentrate on playing “only ICC tournaments with ODIs”.

The left-handed Conway put on a strong opening stand of 46 with Ruturaj Gaikwad and moved second in the batting chart with 458 runs behind Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis (466). The 41-year-old Dhoni hit the winning run at Chennai’s M.A. Chidambaram Stadium as fans, who are coming in numbers to cheer the superstar cricketer in what it is expected to be his last IPL season as player, went wild. Shivam Dube hit an unbeaten 26 off 18 balls as Chennai jumped a spot to second behind table-toppers Gujarat Titans in the 10-team table.


Chennai’s bowlers set up victory after they rattled the Mumbai top-order including the key wickets of Cameron Green, out for six after opening the batting, and skipper Rohit Sharma, dismissed for a second successive duck after coming at number three.

BRIEF SCORES:
MUMBAI INDIANS 139/8 (Wadhera 64 off 51, Suryakumar 26 off 22; Pathirana 3/15, Chahar 2/18, Deshpande 2/26) lost to SUPER KINGS 140/4 in 17.4 overs (Conway 44 off 42, Gaikwad 30 of 16, Dube 26* off 18; Chawla 2-25) by 6 wickets