Published: May 17, 2015, 02:20 PM (IST)
Edited: May 17, 2015, 02:20 PM (IST)
Former champions, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) sealed the top spot in the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL), piling on a good team work, followed by an impressive two-wicket haul by young spinner, Pawan Negi against 2014 runners-up Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in a seven-wicket win.
Following the victory, Negi had an interview with iplt20.com, where he praised Dhoni and believes he is more of a bowler’s captain. Speaking on his confidence level following the win, he said, “The confidence actually is from the way our team is and knowing who the captain is. There is not that much pressure on us. Our team is like a family and if we play our first match we feel so comfortable amongst everyone, it feels good. Today for the first time in the IPL I bowled with the new ball so I was a bit nervous. But since I had the captain’s support, there wasn’t that much nervousness.”
“When the captain had told me that I will be bowling the first ball I was a bit nervous. But before we started to bowl he had told me to bowl as I bowl when I am bowling the third-fourth over. He said, ‘You don’t have to experiment and just bowl normally.’ Whether it is the first over or the last, if you are bowling in the right areas it is difficult for the batsman to hit you,” he added.
On being asked about his feeling when Dhoni showed tremendous confidence in him while asking him to bowl the crucial 19th over, he said, “It feels good. But I do feel a bit of pressure since there are about 10 international players in the team and it is a big thing to be playing amongst them. So there is that pressure to be able to perform on par with them and do well with the team. I tell myself that I have to bowl the way I would normally bowl and not try to do anything extra.” READ: Faf du Plessis feels one can learn a lot from MS Dhoni’s successful captaincy
He also said that Dhoni is more of a captain for bowlers rather than batsmen. “Everyone knows that he is a great captain. He is good for the bowlers. He knows who needs to do what, in which situation, and what kind of fields to set. He’s trusted me and I am happy that I was able to deliver,” he said.
On being asked about his plan to bowl to Wriddhiman Saha and David Miller, who are known for their dangerous batting, he said, “When I was bowling with the new ball it was about bowling wicket to wicket and not experimenting. My effort was to draw the batsman into playing a shot and get the wicket. And for Miller, we knew that he goes for the big hits; so the idea was to try and stop him [from doing that]. We knew if we could force him to playing shots, then he would get out himself. ”
He also claimed to have learnt a lot from other spinners in the team with the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. “Both of them are very good spinners and I learn from constantly interacting with them, especially in the nets. And in the match too they help me with advises in different situations. So I get to learn from all of them a lot,” he concluded.
