Watch: 19-year-old ‘Lasith Malinga clone’ Matheesha Pathirana gets wicket off first ball in IPL

Making his debut for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Sri Lankan right-arm quick Maheesha Pathirana, considered a mirror-image of the great Lasith Malinga, got Shubman Gill out LBW for his first wicket in an IPL 2022 game on Sunday (May 15). 

Pathirana got the Gujarat Titans (GT) opening batter dismissed with an inswinging yorker that came in from an eye-catchingly low trajectory, forcing Gill to err with his downswing and miss a defensive prod on the frontfoot. 

In true Malinga fashion, the CSK seamer had Gill beaten on the inside edge to erupt in a loud LBW shout, which was initially turned down by the standing umpire. 

The DRS, however, came to Maheesha Pathirana’s rescue, showing three reds to force Gill back to the pavillion. The ball pinned the right-hander in front of the stumps from the over-the-wicket angle. 

Maheesha Pathirana gets Shubman Gill out with Malinga style LBW 

Maheesh Pathirana’s maiden IPL wicket was seen at the start of the eighth over in GT’s run-chase at the Wankhede Stadium. Batting set on 18 at the time, Gill was done in by the low trajectory and the swing that unorthodox seamer extracted with a back spin on the ball. 

Fans glued to their television sets for the CSK-GT league stage encounter were left amazed to see a Malinga-style dismissal, not long after the Sri Lankan legend’s retirement from all forms of competitive cricket. 

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Malinga may have moved on to coaching with the Rajasthan Royals (RR), his unique bowling action and its impact remain active on the field with Pathirana, another raw product of Sri Lanka’s historic school cricket culture. 

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— Varma Fan (@VarmaFan1) May 15, 2022

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Coming on board as an injury replacement for Adam Milne, Maheesha Pathirana made an instant impact for CSK, getting an in-form Gill out and breaking his 59-run stand with fellow opening batter Wriddhiman Saha. 

Pathirana, a rising U-19 star for Sri Lanka, caught the world’s attention first in the build-up to the junior World Cup in the Caribbean earlier this year. In his four games of the tournament, Pathirana bagged seven wickets at an economy rate of 6.16.