The Sri Lankan sharpshooter took three wickets while Tushar Deshpande and Deepak Chahar took two wickets each as MS Dhoni's side won easily in Chennai. Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande and Matheesha Pathirana, the pace attacking trio for Chennai Super Kings, put in a superb performance to help their team get back on track against Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.
After five losses to MI, this was a team captained by MS Dhoni to their first win at home. After 11 games, they climbed to second place in the table with 13 points. MI have ten points after ten matches. Pathirana showcased his lethal bowling skills with figures of 4-0-15-3 while Tushar Deshpande and Deepak Chahar shared the day's bowling honors with 4-0-26-2 and 3-0-18-2 respectively thanks to their excellent performances with the new ball. Deshpande's achievement of becoming the man of the tournament (19) was the icing on the cake.
The trio held MI to 139/8, a total CSK easily beat with 14 balls to spare. CSK fans would be relieved to see the team win by six wickets after suffering two losses and no result from their rain-hit match against Lucknow Super Giants. After a great start from opening partner Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway led CSK's chase with a 42-ball 44.
Piyush Chawla's bowling and Nehal Wadhera's batting were the only two bright spots for an otherwise failing MI. MI lost three wickets in the first three overs but Wadhera, 22, gave the visitors something to fight for with his maiden IPL half-century of 64 off 51 balls. Experienced leg-spinner Chawla produced another deft spell to extend the game by four consecutive overs and secure two important wickets.
With skipper Rohit Sharma dropped at No.3, MI hoped to surprise CSK by opening with Cameron Green and Ishan Kishan. It turned out badly. Deshpande tried a planned shot at the towering Australian in the second over and bowled him.
After playing an excellent second over, Chahar at the other end reduced MI to 16/3 after three overs by claiming two wickets for three runs.