Did CSK Intentionally Halt Play to Make Matheesha Pathirana Eligible for Bowling 16th Over?

Chennai Super Kings registered a convincing 15-run win over Gujarat Titans at Chepauk on Monday but an incident in the death overs of the GT chase has raised some eyebrows. Play was stalled for more than a few minutes in bizarre fashion when MS Dhoni walked up to the square-leg umpire for what turned out to be a long chat.

It looked like a conversation about Matheesha Pathirana who was off the field before that over and wasn’t eligible to bowl until he’s been on the field for that duration. It was the 16th over of the chase and with GT requiring 71 off the last five, Dhoni wanted his death specialist, who had just bowled one over before this, to bowl that over in order to complete his quota. If Pathirana hadn’t bowled that over, Dhoni would have been forced to use a sixth bowler which could have proven costly during that crucial juncture of the game.

CSK skipper Dhoni took the risk of one-fielder penalty for slow-over rate and smartly ate up time to make Pathirana eligible for that over. During the confusion, chaos and chatter, umpires stood and instead of asking for play to resume, they were happy to play mere spectators.

Vijay Shankar was out in the middle with Rashid Khan when the event unfolded and the former said that it was an intentional move by CSK to slow down the game to make up time for Pathirana.

“I think he (Pathirana) was out (of the field) for a bit and had little time to still make up. So I think the game slowed down there," Vijay Shankar said at the post-match presser.

CSK opener Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was spotted with Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhoni and Pathirana around the umpires, downplayed the incident and said he doesn’t know what happened there and the conversations which took place between MSD and the two umpires Anil Chaudhary and Chris Gaffaney.

“I don’t know, I went there to get some gossip (laughs) but didn’t get it," said Gaikwad.

The slingy seamer went on to complete his quota and picked two more wickets, including the big one of Vijay. The 20-year-old has picked 16 wickets this season between 16-20 overs and has maintained a brilliant economy rate of under 8.

No wonder Dhoni seemed okay with the over-rate penalty.

What IPL 2023 Playing Conditions say

IPL 2023 Playing Conditions clearly state that a player absent from the field will first have to serve that time on the field to become eligible to bowl. The duration is referred as the “Penalty Time"

24.2.3 If a player is absent from the field for longer than 8 minutes, the following restrictions shall apply to their future participation in the match:

24.2.3.1 The player shall not be permitted to bowl in the match until he has either been able to field, or his team has subsequently been batting, for the total length of playing time for which the player was absent (hereafter referred to as Penalty time). A player’s unexpired Penalty time shall be limited to a maximum of 40 minutes. If any unexpired Penalty time remains at the end of an innings, it is carried forward to the next and subsequent innings of the match.