Chennai Super Kings are starting to lose control of their fortress. For the second time this season, a visiting team that hadn’t tasted victory against them at Chepauk in 15 years was able to utterly dominate them. This resulted in the strangest situation. The crowd here bays for MS Dhoni to come out and bat. They cheer their own team’s wickets in anticipation of his arrival. Well, on Saturday, he was there in the 11th over, but there was only silence.

In the absence of Faf du Plessis, who was not quite fit to play, KL Rahul opened the batting. He needed a little time to get used to the pace of a pitch that was very dry and therefore prevented the ball from coming into the bat. He was 25 off his first 20 balls.

Rahul found release through Noor Ahmad. He took IPL 2025’s highest wicket-taker for 20 off 9 but this wasn’t crash, bang, wallop. The bowler missed his mark a couple of times and the batter was confident enough in both his ability and his method to take full toll.

Noor strayed too full once and Rahul hit the half-volley for four. He pulled his length back once, but offered room to free the arms and Rahul swept him hard for six. Sometimes against spinners who are hard to pick out of the hand, the horizontal bat shots work so long as you pick the length.

This was how from 25 off 20 balls, Rahul hit 36 off 18, which included a reverse scoop off Mukesh Choudhary, the only bowler he actually targeted. Mukesh conceded 40% of the boundaries that DC hit.

There are few sights in cricket more pleasing to the purist’s eye than Pathum Nissanka in full flow – batting as if he were painting strokes on a canvas. Last year, the elegant right-hander had a breakthrough season, making headlines and turning heads. But 2025 hadn’t been kind to him until now. After a barren patch where his bat was quieter than a library on a Sunday, Nissanka has found his rhythm once more.

He started last year with a bang – quite literally – blasting his way past Sanath Jayasuriya’s long-standing record for the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan in ODIs. But he didn’t just break the record; he smashed it to smithereens and went on to notch up the country’s maiden double century in ODI cricket. For a nation that had graced three World Cup finals and boasted of batting luminaries like Aravinda de Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, and T.M. Dilshan, it was almost unbelievable that no Sri Lankan had reached that landmark before.

Yet, the true turning point came in London six months later. With Sri Lanka two-nil down in the Test series after painful losses at Old Trafford and Lord’s, the third Test at The Oval was played for pride. The ball was seaming around like a drunk staggering through a winding road. In those conditions, even someone like Nishantha Ranatunga – whose bowling could usually be charitably described as dibbly-dobbly – might have looked like Michael Holding reincarnated.

That’s when Pathum produced a gem – an innings so perfectly constructed, it belonged in a museum. For the first 40 runs, he played with the straightest of bats, tighter than a miser’s purse. Then, as he started seeing the ball well, the cover drives started flowing like fine wine. Once past the century, he hooked with intent and class, showing he was no one-trick pony.

It was a statement knock, from a player who had previously been pigeonholed as a white-ball specialist. That innings nailed his place back in the Test side and brought Sri Lanka their first win in England in a decade – a victory as rare and precious as a blue moon.

Naturally, fans and pundits thought Nissanka would go from strength to strength. Scoring a ton away from home, especially with the Duke’s ball and against top-tier bowling, is no mean feat. It requires skill, temperament and a touch of steel.

But from that high, it was a steep fall. A string of failures followed – at home against New Zealand and Australia, and away in South Africa. Across five Tests, he mustered just one half-century, the rest of his innings no more than brief cameos that flattered to deceive.

That solitary fifty came at Port Elizabeth, where he looked in complete control – until a rush of blood had him dancing down the track to Keshav Maharaj. He missed, the stumps didn’t. Bowled for 89, with a century there for the taking. It was a golden chance squandered and few Sri Lankans have joined the elusive club of Test centurions on South African soil. That miss stung.

Word has it that the Head Coach didn’t utter a word to him for a fortnight. That Test was within Sri Lanka’s grasp and Pathum’s dismissal tilted the scales.

The lean patch bled into domestic cricket. The runs dried up like a well in a drought. For NCC, he was a passenger and for Kandy in the ongoing NSL, he barely made a ripple in the first few matches. The vultures began to circle.

Meanwhile, openers like Lahiru Udara and Ron Chandraguptha were cashing in, piling on runs and banging loudly on the selection door. For Pathum, the writing was on the wall. It was now or never.

Just when it looked like he was heading back to the pavilion for good, he came up with an innings for the ages – a double century that not only turned heads but kept Kandy’s hopes of making the final alive. It was the cricketing equivalent of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Pathum is cut from rare cloth. He shares traits with the great Sangakkara – particularly that unrelenting hunger for big runs. He doesn’t stop at three figures; he builds monuments. And when he does, the team usually ends up with totals that put the opposition under the pump.

Another feather in his cap is the pace at which he scores. He’s no stonewaller; instead, he unfurls an array of shots that are as delightful as they are destructive. At times, though, that flamboyance is his undoing.

What separates him from the rest is his work ethic. When others are hitting the snooze button, Pathum is hitting the nets. He’s willing to put in the hard yards, and that dedication is the backbone of his resurgence.

Whispers had begun that his place in the Test XI was hanging by a thread. But with a statement double hundred in the country’s premier domestic tournament, Pathum has silenced the doubters and booked his ticket for the Bangaldesh Tests.

by Rex Clementine