The commentators on the official broadcaster droned a bit about the fact that the team that wins the 18th over in a T20 game more often than not wins the game. On Saturday, this conversation came about thanks to Mitchell McClenaghan's 18th over where he gave only four runs and picked M.S. Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo just when the former was getting into his grove.
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 that ensured an eight-wicket win for the defending champions.
Read: CSK has to ‘work extra hard’ for home advantage, admits Fleming
McClenaghan said, “I think Dhoni if he gets going towards the end, we all know how destructive he can be, so it was a key wicket. Obviously, 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. So it was crucial in that period of the game.”
It was something even CSK coach Stephen Fleming attributed as the turning point of the game 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 Mitch McClenaghan over, where he got away by getting MS (Dhoni) with a rogue one; he might claim it was 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 are fully 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 play fearlessly and the encouragement has to come from the whole group. We got together and have got behind each other. It doesn't matter if you make mistake, we just focus on the plans we put together and I think we did that well here.”
The defending champions have often staged miraculous recoveries from slow starts to win the IPL title and the 31-year old cited the importance of collective effort that has helped the side in the past.
“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.”
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