On Saturday, the TV commentators droned on about the fact that the team that wins the 18th over in a T20 game more often than not wins the game.
This conversation came about thanks to Mitchell McClenaghan’s 18th over where he gave only four runs and picked up M.S. Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo just when the former was getting into his groove.
The Kiwi bowler admitted his wide full toss wasn’t perfectly executed but did enough to get Dhoni caught at long-off that helped Mumbai Indians restrict CSK to just 169.
“We all know that if Dhoni gets going towards the end, how destructive he can be. It was a key wicket. I was lucky with the full toss; it was not perfectly executed but the idea was to take the angle away from him, try and get him to target that short boundary.”
Fleming’s endorsement
CSK coach Stephen Fleming also termed that the turning point, with the former Black Caps skipper taking a light-hearted dig at his compatriot about the quality of the delivery.
“We were in prime position until the McClenaghan over, where he got away by getting MS (Dhoni) with a rogue one; he might claim it was a great plan and it possibly could have been (laughs), but that was the turning point of the match.”
The New Zealand left-arm pacer spoke about his side’s tough start to the tournament and said the players were backing each other which is imperative to play fearless cricket after five losses.
“We lost a couple of games in the last few overs and we have all been guilty of not executing our plans. It is about having a positive mentality and playing fearlessly.
“The encouragement has to come from the whole group. We got together and got behind each other. It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes, we just focus on the plans and I think we did that well here.”
The defending champion has often staged miraculous recoveries from slow starts to win the IPL title and the 31-year-old cited the importance of collective effort.
“I think the important thing is that we win and lose together. It’s not just one person who is going to get us out of this hole, it’s going to be a collective effort.
“If we try and dig ourselves out of this hole as individuals it’s not going to work. Someone might win the purple cap or the orange cap but we will be going home early. Mumbai has had a history of winning titles without individuals.”
