[Watch]- ‘Junior Malinga’ Matheesha Pathirana Grabs Wicket Of Shubman Gill On First Ball Of His IPL Debut

Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans are facing each other at Wankhede stadium in the ongoing season of Indian Premier League. CSK captain MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first in this match. This decision was taken considering the fact that it’s a day game.

CSK made 4 changes to their playing XI for this match. N Jagadeesan, Prashant Solanki, Mitchell Santner and Matheesha Pathirana replaced Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Bravo and Maheesh Theekshana in the Playing XI. Srilankan Pacer Matheesha Pathirana was making his IPL debut in this match.

Pathirana is popularly known as ‘Junior Malinga’ due to his slingy action like Malinga. Several cricket fans were excited to see his bowling. Pathirana came into bowl seventh over and did not disappoint. He grabbed the crucial wicket of Shubman Gill on the first ball of his IPL debut.

Gill was clearly deceived by the pace and slingy action of Pathirana. Shubman failed to bring down his bat in time for the flick shot and the ball struck his pads. Bowler made a huge appeal and the umpire didn’t hesitate in giving it LBW out. It was a great start to the IPL career of Matheesha Pathirana.

Watch the video:

Wicket was a bit sticky and wasn’t easy for us to make our shots- N Jagadeesan

After electing to bat first, CSK didn’t get a good start. They lost the early wicket of in-form batsman Devon Conway. Moeen Ali smashed Rashid Khan for two sixes in the last over of Powerplay and brought the momentum towards CSK. However, CSK failed to get any sort of momentum in middle overs and Death overs. As a result, CSK could only score 133 runs in 20 overs.

Jagadeesan called this pitch as two paced in the mid-Match interview. N Jagadeesan said “Wicket was a bit sticky and two-paced, wasn’t easy for us to make our shots. Still think we were like 15-20 runs short. On this wicket if we execute properly it’s game on. Fast bowlers – when they keep changing their pace, it’s tricky for the batters. Even the spinners have got something from the wicket.”

Written by Harsh Gupta

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