Chennai Super Kings bowling coach Eric Simons has defended Matheesha Pathirana amid his underwhelming form this IPL season, saying that the opposition batters have started reading and adapting better to him. The five-time champions were eliminated from the IPL play off race on Wednesday when they lost to Punjab Kings, their eighth defeat in 10 outings. Pathirana, known for his slingy action, has lost the control he had in the previous season. Earlier, CSK head coach had said the reason for a dip in form was due to a change in action.

“It’s been quite well documented that there was a bit of an action change. But he’s pretty much back to where he was and just in terms of the height of his arm on a reasonably consistent basis,” Simons said in the post-match press conference.

“I’m not sure that he’s less accurate. Batters are playing him a lot better. We can certainly see a trend in the way that batters are playing against him, particularly against Mumbai the other day.

“The technique that they’re using, they understand what his plans and what he does,” he added.

Pathirana has taken nine wickets at an average of 33.11 and an economy of 10.39 in eight matches this season. He has also been guilty of bowling several wides.

Simons feels the Sri Lankan pacer needs to evolve as batters have found a way to score against him.

“So the evolution, might just be what’s next for him tactically as to what he needs to do to keep evolving. Batters need to keep evolving, bowlers need to keep evolving.

“Tonight, his channels are quite good. His lines are quite good. Obviously, he got his lengths, he’d prefer a fuller length, but the batsmen are treating him differently this year.” Simons feels CSK need to be “tactically smarter” in crucial moments in order to win games.

“I think as a team, throughout batting and bowling, there are little areas we want to try and find to be more accurate around what we want to do. But as a unit, the guys have pretty much played their job.

“It’s about winning those big overs. Every now and then you’re sitting up there and going, if we have a really tight over here, the game changes.

“Sometimes you get away in the last ball or the second-last ball and not understanding sometimes how to come out of an over. I think tactically smarter in key moments is probably some of the growth areas that we need to always work on.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)