Canny Theekshana brings bowling respite for CSK

In September 2021, when Sri Lanka won their first ODI series of the year against South Africa, Dasun Shanka made it known, to the uninitiated: "It's not easy to read Maheesh Theekshana." The 20-year-old debutant's four-wicket haul powered the home team's defence of a paltry 203, and offered a chance for the newest in Sri Lanka's assembly line of mystery spinners to turn heads. If heads hadn't turned on that night in Colombo, they sure did in the first round of the T20 World Cup later that year, where he made it a habit of drawing first blood for Sri Lanka with a PowerPlay wicket.

Yet, come the IPL auction in February, Wanindu Hasaranga was expectedly the more sought-after spinner. The demand for a quality wrist spinner and the limited supply of it pushed Hasaranga's bidding to exorbitant amounts, while Chennai Super Kings sneaked in to pick his young and wily teammate (for INR 70 Lakh) who too provided great value in the T20 format, as Shanaka had also announced. The catch though, was where would he fit into the scheme of things for the defending champions?

CSK's success has been built on their unshakeable faith in specific plans and team combinations, complemented by the least amount of experimentation. Even during the lows of 2020, changes made were either injury-forced or because the chances of making playoffs was negligible. CSK's grand plan to usher in a new cycle of the tournament with the exact same set of players from last year didn't bode well for Theekshana either, as the team composition of 2021 had no room for a second overseas spinner. Ask Mitchell Santner.

Which brings us to this night full of runs at the DY Patil stadium, which also turned out to also be a night when Theekshana pushed open the proverbial door left slightly ajar for him, with the possibility of consistent opportunities on the other side of it.

Though Stephen Fleming has had to admit that there's been a rot in performances from top to bottom this season, the one big detrimental factor has been the lack of wickets up front and through the middle in the absence of the injured Deepak Chahar, and Shardul Thakur, who they couldn't bring back successfully. Missing a vital bowling cog could not have been stated more emphatically on an evening like this one, where RCB bore the brunt of not having Harshal Patel around.

Even with 216 runs on the board, wickets were the currency for a side that had already lost once after posting a 200-plus total this season. With RCB's batting line-up recently bolstered with Glenn Maxwell's return, all bets were off for where the game was headed.

But CSK's yearning for early control in games finally found a facilitator in the Sri Lankan spinner, who cramped Faf du Plessis for room when he tried to clear the straight boundary in the third over, and made the first big move of the second innings. When Anuj Rawat didn't read Theekshana's carrom ball and fell leg before in the sixth over, CSK had picked twice as many PowerPlay wickets (2) in that game as they had in all their previous fixtures combined. Already, Theekshana was looking like just the kind of bowling respite that CSK sought. And there was more to come.

Dew stayed away, the ball stayed dry and Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Maxwell for the seventh time in the format but the chase, somehow, was still not entirely extinguished. The equation (107 off 48) was herculean but Shahbaz Ahmed - who's already starred in a chase this season - and Suyash Prabhudessai - a highly-rated debutant - were running the show. The early control that CSK earned was alarmingly slipping away.

But back came Theekshana to poke another hole into RCB's effort - this time with drift and a bit of away turn from Prabhudessai to sneak past his dance down the track and shatter the stumps. Another carrom ball broke Shahbaz's stumps an over later, to knock the wind out of RCB's sails with a rousing spell of 4 for 33.

Before the game, Fleming admitted the search was on at CSK for the right bowling combinations to pick wickets and take control. On a night with ample runs on the board, CSK might have just found one such cog.