It will be tough to hit Matheesha Pathirana if he bowls consistent pace: MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni heaped praises on Matheesha Pathirana after the debutant scalped two big wickets in his maiden IPL game. The Sri Lankan speedster, who is fondly known as junior Lasith Malinga, registered 2/24 for CSK in the 62^nd match of the tournament against the Gujarat Titans.

CSK made four changes to their side and Pathirana was roped in as a replacement player after New Zealand’s Adam Milne had to make an exit from the league owing to an injury. Though Pathirana ended up on the losing side, he was brilliant with his pace when he scalped Shubhman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

“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. We are trying to feature a good XI and will look to do that in the coming games also,” said Dhoni during the post-match presentation.

Batting first wasn’t a very good idea: MS Dhoni

Dhoni had won the toss and elected to bat first, but his decision backfired when GT restricted them to just 133 runs in 20 overs and scalped five wickets. CSK batters faced a terrible time at the crease as they struggled to score big. The worst came in the final five overs when they failed to hit a single boundary and kept running between the wickets. Speaking of the decision, Dhoni said:

“Batting first wasn’t a very good idea. It was tough to hit the faster bowlers in the first half, spinners-wise it was similar. Sai bowled well.”

Talking about how the game panned out, Gujarat Titans gave a tough time to CSK as they had an upper hand from the start. Ruturaj Gaikwad brought up his half-century and N Jagadeesan also had a good run, but their efforts were just not enough to take the scoreboard to a big total. Chasing 134, Titans’ opener Wriddhiman Saha remained unbeaten, scoring 67 (57) as GT bagged their tenth win of the season, keeping their No. 1 place on the points table intact.