Will Injured Matheesha Pathirana Play the CSK vs RCB IPL 2025 Clash in Chepauk? Head Coach Stephen Fleming Reveals

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will host Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on March 28 in Chepauk. But, the home team may yet again take the field without the services of their key pacer Matheesha Pathirana. As per CSK’s head coach, Stephen Fleming, Pathirana has been progressing slowly. However, it’d be difficult to count on him to don the yellow jersey tomorrow.

– Pathirana is progressing well
– Same team for Tomorrow's Match

🎙️Flemming pic.twitter.com/RWnQWzOZTK

— 𝙏𝙖𝙣𝙢𝙤𝙮𝙈𝙨𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣⁷ (@TanmoyMsdian_7) March 27, 2025

As per early reports, it is believed that Pathirana suffered a minor injury while changing his bowling action. However, an official statement is pending from the franchise. Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad has yet to speak on this matter.

Coming to the southern derby, Nathan Ellis might get another chance in the playing XI. The Aussie pacer featured in CSK’s opening clash as well against the Mumbai Indians (MI) last weekend.

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Easy Win For CSK in their IPL 2025 Opener

Despite the absence of Matheesha Pathirana, the Super Kings started their campaign on a winning note. Playing in an El Clasico, CSK put MI to bat first at Chepauk. Mumbai Indians, led by Suryakumar Yadav, posted a sub-par 155/9.

The Men in Blue saw another batting order collapse. Opener and former skipper Rohit Sharma departed in four balls without scoring any runs. While Ryan Rickelton (13) and Will Jacks (13) got some momentum, they couldn’t play a longer innings. SKY’s 29 from 26 wasn’t impressive, while the allrounder Tilak Varma was the top scorer for MI with 31 runs. Deepak Chahar contributed 28 runs from the tail-end of the innings.

Noor Ahmad, playing his first CSK game, returned with four wickets while Khaleel Ahmed bagged a three-wicket haul. Nathan Ellis and Ravichandran Ashwin also picked up one wicket each.

The Chepauk deck supported spinners as the ball gripped and turned. It is expected to behave the same way and provide early assistance in the upcoming fixture as well.

In the second innings, despite losing an early wicket of Rahul Tripathi, Rachin Ravindra (65) and skipper Gaikwad (53) set the stage for CSK’s four-wicket win. Though they lost the middle-order cheaply, the victory had CSK written all over it as they still had MS Dhoni on the crease with a few balls to spare.

After a win in the inaugural season in 2008, RCB are yet to beat CSK at Chepauk. The Rajat Patidar-led side will hope to update the statistics on March 28.

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