The Ripples of Matheesha Pathirana's anomalies

Slingy, anomalous ripples that are unlike anything we've ever seen before

Sri Lankan. Malinga clone. Undertaker celebration. 

All of these qualities aren’t what you'd associate with Chennai Super Kings and MS Dhoni in the Indian Premier League, yet Matheesha Pathirana has gained the reputation of being Dhoni's favorite child at CSK. 

So what did Dhoni see in him back when he was just a CSK net bowler?

The gigantic Undertaker is 2.08 meters tall, which is pretty close to the average seamer's release height, but Pathirana is nowhere close to it.

The release height of an average right-arm seamer bowling from over the wicket this IPL season (referred to as 'average right-arm seamer' from hereon) is 1.94 metres; Pathirana’s is 1.54 metres. 

His release point is also just 6 centimetres away from the middle stump on average. For the average right arm seamer, it is 63 centimetres. 

Ranking seamers by their average release point, Pathirana’s release point is both the lowest and the closest to the middle stump.

Pathirana's release point vs Avg right arm seamer's release point

Batter’s view

The above images highlight that since Pathirana's release point is so low and tight, it can be a challenge for batters to pick them.

Occasionally, he also crosses over to the other side of the middle stump. 

In fact, Hawkeye has recorded a couple of deliveries where the ball was released beyond the line of the 3 stumps, and no other right-arm seamer had even one such delivery bowling from over the wicket.

The only other bowler with release points crossing the middle stump line is his fellow slingy countryman  - Nuwan Thushara. 

Thushara ranks second in terms of both the release height and the closeness to the middle stump. 

Both are slingy, but Pathirana is unlike anything we've ever seen before.

While Thushara occasionally releases the ball from outside the middle stump line, Pathirana does so nearly 5 times more frequently. 

Pathirana also has a wider range of release lines, which allows him to release the ball from both sides of the stumps.

Pathirana’s leftmost and rightmost release points this season - he can release the ball from anywhere between these 2 points

While Thushara has a similarly unconventional release point, his pace and accuracy are nowhere close to Pathirana’s, who though has a long way to go with the latter, is right at the top when it comes to the former. 

This IPL, he had the 3rd highest average pace (141.31 kph). Out of bowlers who bowled at least 30 deliveries, he was one of 4 bowlers whose average pace was above 140 kph. His pace range is remarkably diverse too.

Pathirana’s pace range

Pathirana is the only bowler to have bowled more than 10% of his balls in six different 5 kph pace ranges, as well as one of only 2 bowlers to have bowled more than 10% of his deliveries above 150 kph.

But obviously, pace isn't everything. 

Mitchell Marsh grew up playing on Western Australian pitches and has earned the reputation of being a pace monster in this format, so Pathirana's bullets 150 KPH bullets are supposed to be nothing for him. 

Match 13 - DC vs CSK: Marsh had just scored a boundary off Pathirana and is probably looking to score another one. Fourth ball of the 15th over, Pathirana bowls a 150 kph half volley. MARSH IS BOWLED. 

Has to be the weird release, right?

Enter Tristan Stubbs. 

He lit up the IPL with his batting. He can hit pace, and is familiar with slingy actions; he strikes at 200 against Thushara. 

Two balls later, BOWLED AGAIN! Stubbs faces a similar fate as Marsh from a 149 kph Pathirana yorker.

It's not just the pace and the weird angle, there's something else at play here: both batters were beaten on the inside edge.

The ball moved more than 2° inwards before pitching on both occasions. 

To give more perspective, the difference between the initial line without deviation and the actual line of the ball at the pitching point was more than 30 cm for both deliveries. 

Pathirana to Marsh - 35 cm difference at the pitching point (Green line shows where the ball would have gone without the drift and the blue line shows the actual trajectory) (Viz credits: Himanish Ganjoo)

Pathirana to Stubbs - 39 cm difference at the pitching point (Green line shows where the ball would have gone without the drift and the blue line shows the actual trajectory) (Viz credits: Himanish Ganjoo)

Because of his unorthodox action, he imparts sidespin on the ball instead of the typical backspin that seamers impart. 

Whereas sidespin causes the ball to drift in the air, backspin makes the ball lift and land fuller than intended. Sidespin allows Pathirana to move the ball laterally in the air at any stage of the match. 

His average deviation of 0.87° is the second highest for any pacer in overs 7-16, a period marked by the absence of both new ball swing and old ball swing. 

Seamers usually get lift on their quicker deliveries and dip on their slower deliveries. Lift and dip are functions of backspin and overspin respectively. Backspin causes a ball to rotate backward, resulting in higher lift while overspin causes a ball to rotate forward, resulting in dip. 

Thanks to Pathirana’s weird action, he imparts neither a significant amount of backspin nor overspin. 

As mentioned earlier, the sidespin he imparts means he neither achieves the lift nor the dip and it leads to unpredictable behaviour, distinguishing him from others.

The natural vertical acceleration due to gravity is -9.8 m/s² (the negative sign indicates downward acceleration). When backspin is imparted, it creates an upward force that counteracts some of this downward acceleration. This slows down the downward acceleration and that’s what causes the ball to land fuller. 

On average, Pathirana gets a vertical acceleration of -8.01 m/s² on balls bowled over 125 kph. This is very close to the natural downward pull of gravity (-9.8 m/s²), indicating his regular deliveries don't rise much and land shorter. 

In contrast, the average seamer gets a vertical acceleration of -6.80 m/s², meaning they get a lift of about 3 m/s² on their stock balls and the ball lands fuller.

Approximate* trajectories demonstrating the effect of lift on balls delivered from the same release point at the same speed and the same angle but a different vertical acceleration

This difference is further amplified by Pathirana’s other attributes. The combination of the unorthodox release height and the absence of a significant lift results in the ball pitching and bouncing at a completely different angle compared to the average bowler. 

Approximate* trajectories of a typical delivery from Pathirana and an average right arm seamer - Notice the differences in angle and bounce despite the balls pitching at a similar length

Though he's slingy like Malinga, he's not a carbon copy. 

They share many attributes, but Pathirana has taken some of them to the next level. 

He complements these with his express pace and varied release points. 

He's like a creation straight out of Dr.Gero's lab, formed by combining the cells of the best in the world, yet he has his own unique identity. 

Matheesha Pathirana is unlike anything batters have ever seen before, thanks to the ripples of the anomaly he is.

All stats presented in this article are true up to the league stages of the IPL.

Special thanks to Himanish Ganjoo for his invaluable contributions in creating the visualizations that explain Pathirana’s drift.

*The trajectories depicted were constructed using the average values of release point, release angle, release speed, vertical acceleration, bouncing point, coefficient of friction, and coefficient of restitution. They are not accurate as there’s no such thing as ‘average trajectory’ and certain factors influencing a ball’s trajectory were not accounted for.