Sri Lanka’s “Baby Malinga” helps Chennai Super Kings hammer Mumbai Indians
Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana aka “Baby Malinga” led an inspired pace attack to help Chennai Super Kings hammer Mumbai Indians by six wickets in a clash of IPL heavyweights today (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”.
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 wick
(Economic Times)
