After Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Qualifier 1 of IPL 2019, MI cricketer Jayant Yadav credited their different planning for different conditions.
On last Tuesday (7th May) night, MI won the Qualifier 1 match against CSK at Chennai and has qualified for the final of IPL 2019. After they restricted CSK to just 131/4 (20 overs) in the first innings, MI comfortably reached that target in 18.3 overs after losing four wickets.
MI spinners bowled impressively during that match as they were economical as well as wicket-takers. Later, in the crucial moment, Suryakumar Yadav and the youngster Ishan Kishan batted impressively to guide the side to the comfortable victory.
Jayant Yadav, who featured in that match, believes that beating CSK is always a great feeling. Talking about their victory in that match, he credited their different planning for the different situations.
In the post-match press conference, Yadav said, “Beating Chennai anywhere is a great feat because they are a complete team and they have a great leader. Our plans, batting or bowling have been condition specific. For example, in Wankhede we had different plans to different people, Chennai was different plans to different people.
“So, it is about gearing yourself up tactically to the situations and executing those plans to the hilt.”
I played in Chennai because the track offers spin here – Jayant Yadav
It was Jayant Yadav’s second match in this IPL season where he had the bowling figures of 3-0-25-1. The off-spinner dismissed Suresh Raina (5 runs) cheaply through the caught & bowled method.
Talking about his inclusion in the playing XI for that match, Yadav claimed that it was a tactical decision.
He added, “I played in Chennai because the track offers spin here. I came in as the extra spinner. My match-up was against the left-handers and bowling in the powerplays. It was a tactical decision which came off in the end.”
MI already had two spinners in the playing XI – the left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya and the leg-spinner Rahul Chahar. After adding Jayant Yadav for that match, the MI spinners combinedly performed very well. Their combined bowling figures in that innings were 11-0-60-4 with an economy rate of 5.45. The MI spinners were tight enough in that innings which helped them to restrict CSK to the low total.
Jayant Yadav also feels that the CSK spinners also bowled very well in that match. However, he believes that the low required run-rate helped them to win that match comfortably.
Yadav said, “I think their spinners also bowled really well. It was just that they were batting first and had to put up a total. When Jaddu or Imran was bowling, there was adequate turn. The advantage that we had was we knew after 11 overs we were chasing just around six runs an over. That played a part.”
Among the CSK spinners, Harbhajan Singh (4-0-25-1) and Imran Tahir (4-0-33-2) picked up wickets. Meanwhile, the left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja was very economical with the bowling figures of 4-0-18-0 (economy rate 4.50).
Jayant Yadav lauded the MI captain
Jayant Yadav also praised their captain Rohit Sharma for his brilliant captaincy in that match.
He said, “I think in the power play, the batsman cannot get used to you because if he understands what you are trying to do in different deliveries, he can really size you up because of the field restrictions.
“Rohit, I think has been brilliant with that and it was just one of those occasions when he juggled his bowlers to the best situation.”
Three-time IPL champions MI will play their fifth IPL final on this Sunday (12th May) night. The winner of Qualifier 2 (on 10th May) will face MI in the upcoming IPL 2019 final. In that Qualifier 2, the defending champions CSK will play against the winner of Eliminator (on 8th May).