There was a massive Chennai connect to Steve O’Keefe’s success; he made it a point to single out former Tamil Nadu and India left-arm spinner Sridharan Sriram’s contribution.
“Sri has been a big influence. I worked with him in Chennai in the ‘A’ series. He knows the conditions. I get to spend lunch time bowling with him.
“And, he knows how to bowl in these conditions. How the (Indian) batters think. He has been the biggest help along with the other coaching staff,” said O’Keefe.
Later, at his media conference, he said: “I think, Sri is an excellent spin-bowling coach. I've a good coach who tapped me on the head in between sessions; he's not afraid to tell it to your face and tell it to you straight, which is excellent.
“The first six overs, I think I went back to my comfort zone, which is what I bowl in Australia. You don't see it on camera, but it was just going a bit over the top and whenever I was trying to bowl quick.
“It was ordinary bowling in the first six overs. I'd been working in the nets with some other variations, just changing the seam and arm angles. You probably don't notice it, but for me it made all the difference.
“Sri is like ‘let's go out and bowl till you feel comfortable with it and then hit it on... let's start up with it in the next innings’. It worked this time.”
O’Keefe was quite sympathetic towards Abhinav Mukund who dropped Steve Smith.
“I’m sure we'll go through periods where we don't field as well as we would like to. I know Abhinav pretty well, I’ve spent some time at the academy with him.
“Unfortunately, it just didn't go his way. It's tough when you're 12th man.
“Fortunately for us, we held our chances.”
