Mumbai, April 15 In the defence of 206 against Mumbai Indians, Matheesha Pathirana shined with a remarkable spell of 4-28 and the young Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) pacer said his main concern was just about getting his execution right instead of thinking about results.
Pathirana missed CSK's last two matches due to a hamstring niggle, but bowled a match-winning spell when it mattered the most to derail MI’s chase and seal a 20-run win for the visitors.
"When we were bowling in the powerplay, I was pretty nervous. I was told to keep it calm and do my thing, that gave me the confidence. I don't think too much about results, just concerned with my execution. If I execute, I will get my rewards," said Pathirana after the match ended, where he picked Player of the Match award.
He first took out Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in the space of three balls in the eighth over, before dismissing Tilak Varma and Romario Shepherd to ensure CSK got crucial two points in the lone ‘El Clasico’ clash of IPL 2024.
"Sometimes I have to change my plans depending on the batters. I was struggling with a bit of a niggle two weeks ago, but the support staff all backed me and that's been the main reason for my form," he added.
Shardul Thakur, the CSK fast-bowling all-rounder, felt effecting a slowdown of Rohit Sharma, who would go on to make an unbeaten century, via the slower balls was also the key in the visitors’ getting the win. "In the middle, when Rohit was going strong, we felt game is sliding a little.
"When I came on to bowl, I felt let's be brave here and make him play to the bigger side, challenge him to hit me on the bigger side, if he can clear the boundary, well give him full marks but if he can't, then (it) might be turning point of the game."
Thakur also noted that with Sunday’s match being played on the pitch which was used for MI’s clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 11, he knew the slower balls would work well.
"On the 11th, MI played on the same pitch and I think in Wankhede whenever the pitch is repeated, slower ones work better the next game and we felt apart from Pathirana I think we felt we should keep bowling slower ones into the pitch and at some point, we'll be able to get them out," he concluded.
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