A bout of flu forced Tushar Deshpande to miss out on Chennai Super Kings’ home fixture against Punjab Kings earlier in the week. But in the reverse fixture on May 5, the seasoned fast bowler returned to action in style and claimed two for 35 to guide CSK to a 28-run win and bring its Indian Premier League campaign back on track.

After CSK’s innings ended at 167 for 9, it did not seem to be a great total on the HPCA Stadium surface. However, Deshpande struck in his opening over, dismissing the in-form Jonny Bairstow and Rilee Russouw in a span of three deliveries. Punjab Kings could not recover thereon before finishing at 139 for 9.

Coming into the game, CSK’s bowling department had injury concerns with Deepak Chahar and Matheesha Pathirana out of action, but it managed to execute its plans to perfection as Simarjeet Singh — returning to competitive cricket after December 2022 — and Ravindra Jadeja (3 for 20) built on Deshpande’s fiery opening spell.

Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh forged a 53-run partnership for the third wicket and looked on course to guide Kings out of the woods, but things went downhill once Mitchell Santner earned a breakthrough dismissing Shashank. Jadeja followed up dismissing Prabhsimran and triggered Kings’ collapse. The home side lost five wickets for 16 runs.

With this win, CSK kept its playoffs alive despite another dull day with the bat. It lost opener Ajinkya Rahane early, but captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Daryl Mitchell dominated the Powerplay, taking the tally to 60 for 1.

At that stage, it seemed CSK was on course for a 200-plus total, but things turned quickly as leg-spinner Rahul Chahar broke the partnership and claimed the wickets of Gaikwad and Shivam Dube in consecutive deliveries. It was another golden duck for Dube and having lost three wickets in a space of 11 balls, CSK’s innings needed consolidating.

Jadeja played a handy knock to guide the team breach the 160-run mark, even though batting at No.9 for the first time in his T20 career, MS Dhoni fell in the first delivery. But in the end, it was CSK all the way.

Matheesha Pathirana returns to Sri Lanka

Chennai Super Kings’ Matheesha Pathirana’s outing in the ongoing IPL is all but over as the pacer will return to Sri Lanka to recover from a hamstring injury.

The right-arm slinger played six matches in this IPL, picking up 13 wickets at an economy of 7.68.

“Chennai Super Kings wishes Pathirana a quick recovery,” the CSK stated in a media release.

Pathirana last played for CSK during their 78-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he bowled two overs and picked up the wickets of Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen.

Pathirana missed the match against Punjab Kings at Chennai on May 1 with England pacer Richard Gleeson replacing him.

The unavailability of Pathirana is a big setback to CSK as their bowling stocks have dwindled drastically in the last few days.

Pace bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar too is set to miss the remainder of the IPL with a niggle he sustained during the match against Punjab at Chepauk.

Chahar walked off the field after bowling just two balls and Shardul Thakuar had completed the over for him.

“Deepak Chahar doesn’t look good. The initial feeling wasn’t great. So, I’m hoping for a more positive report when the physio and the doctor have a look,” CSK coach Stephen Fleming had said after that match.

CSK will also be without Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana at least for a couple of more matches as he is expected to fly back to Sri Lanka to complete his USA visa process ahead of next month’s T20 World Cup in the Americas.

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman’s IPL stint too came to an end in the previous match against PBKS after he has joined the national team for the home T20I series against Zimbabwe.

Scoreboard

Chennai Super Kings: Ajinkya Rahane c Rabada b Arshdeep Singh 9 Ruturaj Gaikwad c JM Sharma b Chahar 32 Daryl Mitchell lbw b Patel 30 Shivam Dube c JM Sharma b Chahar 0 Moeen Ali c Bairstow b Curran 17 Ravindra Jadeja c Curran b Arshdeep Singh 43 Mitchell Santner c Curran b Chahar 11 Shardul Thakur b Patel 17 Mahendra Singh Dhoni b Patel 0 Tushar Deshpande not out 0 Richard Gleeson not out 2 Extras: (LB-1, W-5) 6

Total: (For 9 wickets in 20 overs) 167

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-69, 3-69, 4-75, 5-101, 6-122, 7-150, 8-150, 9-164

Punjab Kings bowling: Kagiso Rabada 3-0-24-0, Arshdeep Singh 4-0-42-2, Sam Curran 4-0-34-1, Harpreet Brar 1-0-19-0, Rahul Chahar 4-0-23-3, Harshal Patel 4-0-24-3.

Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh c sub (Sameer Rizvi) b Jadeja 30 Jonny Bairstow b Deshpande 7 Rilee Rossouw b Deshpande 0 Shashank Singh c Simarjeet Singh b Santner 27 Sam Curran c Santner b Jadeja 7 Jitesh Sharma c Dhoni b Simarjeet Singh 0 Ashutosh Sharma c Simarjeet Singh b Jadeja 3 Harpreet Brar not out 17 Harshal Patel c sub (Sameer Rizvi) b Simarjeet Singh 12 Rahul Chahar b Thakur 16 Kagiso Rabada not out 11 Extras: (LB-5, W-4) 9

Total: (For 9 wickets in 20 overs) 139

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-9, 3-62, 4-68, 5-69, 6-77, 7-78, 8-90, 9-117

Chennai Super Kings bowling: Mitchell Santner 3-0-10-1, Tushar Deshpande 4-0-35-2, Richard Gleeson 4-0-41-0, Ravindra Jadeja 4-0-20-3, Simarjeet Singh 3-0-16-2, Shardul Thakur 2-0-12-1.

(with inputs from PTI)

New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner celebrates a wicket during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 match between against Afghanistan
| Photo Credit: PTI

New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner feels assessing the conditions in Dharamsala and countering an in-form Rohit Sharma will be vital as they eye the “tough” task of beating India at home during their World Cup clash on Sunday.

New Zealand have done well to adapt to the different conditions in the World Cup. The Black Caps, who have won all four of their games in the tournament so far, have played in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai.

They will now fly to Dharamsala for the much-anticipated game against India, who are on a three-match winning streak.

“We know they’re going to obviously be a challenge at home. They look pretty tough to beat. We’ll have to do our assessment in Dharamsala – see what the wicket’s going to do.

“There has been a little pace and bounce. But whether that is the case when we play them, we’ll see,” Santner said after New Zealand’s 149-run win over Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Rohit has looked in imperious form at the top, playing brilliant knocks of 86 against Pakistan and 131 against Afghanistan to fashion huge victories.

“I think power play with the ball is going to be very important. The way Rohit’s kind of getting them off to a flyer. And so, I think we have to do similar stuff to what we’re doing.

“I guess you’re never going to play a perfect game so for us, it’s two points. That’s what we look to get out of every game depending on who we’re playing and what we’ve done well through this tournament is being able to adapt to different conditions.

“Every pitch we’ve played on has been slightly different. We have to treat it very similarly leading into the game against India, assess the conditions, see what’s going to work the best with ball, with bat, build those partnerships and try to take them deep and see what happens.”

Searching for their maiden title, New Zealand have so far beaten holders England, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, in the tournament.

“We’ve just got to kind of keep doing us, keep focused on the things we want to and how we want to play. And obviously, it’s nice to be in this position to lead into this game.

“We obviously know it’s such a long tournament, and one loss isn’t going to hurt you if you win the rest, or you kind of look at that at the start.” The Kiwis survived an early scare with the bat to post a respectable total of 288 for 6 and successfully defended it to secure a win over Afghanistan.

Santner believes the 144-run partnership between skipper Tom Latham and Glenn Phillips was the turning point.

“We know that every game is a tough game. Afghanistan today was no different. We started off pretty well, but there were moments in the game where we were battling a little bit.

“It was on a knife edge for a while, so it was nice to get to a score. I guess that partnership between Tom and GP was massive for us, and then it – pressure with the new ball always helps.”

CSK’s Santner and Conway enjoy home comfort at MA Chidambaram Stadium

Familiar with the conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium having played for the Chennai Super Kings, Santner had a spectacular game. The spin all-rounder took three scalps and plucked the ball midair to complete a stunning catch.

“I guess when we turn up here for IPL, we’ve played on wickets that kind of look similar to that. Today, it looked like it swung a little bit and actually spun a little bit more under lights, which kind of helped that we lost the toss and batted first,” he said.

“It’s nice to be playing here, watched a lot of games here and played the odd one, and speak for Dev (Conway) as well, it’s pretty cool to play in front of some loyal fans.” Ibrahim Zadran’s wicket saw Santner become just the second Black Caps spinner to reach 100 ODI dismissals, after former skipper Daniel Vettori.

“It’s nice to get to that milestone. I wasn’t thinking about it too much leading into the game. It’s just about trying to perform my role and do a job out there just like every other game.

It has been a general trend in this World Cup that the teams have been attacking more during the second powerplay with pacers. As for the New Zealanders, they have used Santner and pacer Lockie Ferguson in tandem.

“I guess that kind of the middle phase – the key is to try to take wickets. It’s challenging at times when teams use that phase to set up a platform and then have wickets in hand to attack the last 10-15 overs.”

“So, it’s nice for me when he’s (Ferguson) bowling 150 out of the other end because they might try to take me on a bit more and not face that. His role in the middle is to be aggressive and take wickets. And, on a day, if he is potentially going for runs, it might be more my job to kind of hold it.”