Defending champions Chennai Super Kings entered their eighth IPL final and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni credited the clinical effort of his bowing unit for setting up the platform for a comfortable win over Delhi Capitals in the Qualifier 2 here.
Opting to bowl, CSK first restricted DC to 147 for nine and then chased down the target with six wickets in hand, to set up a clash against Mumbai Indians in the IPL final in Hyderabad on Sunday.
“The crucial part was to keep getting wickets. The credit needs to go to the bowlers. The captain only asks this is what I need. Then it's up to them to figure out how to bowl, and they have to put in the hard yards,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Thanks to the bowling department for where we are this season. I would have preferred it if the openers finished it off. Once they got the required rate below 6 an over, there was no reason to play big shots and get out. They did the hard yards,” he added.
Dhoni also lauded the entire CSK team for producing a clinical performance when it mattered.
“It's the usual route, last year was the exception. The kind of response from the boys today was brilliant. The way we batted to get 140-plus runs was very nice,” he said.
“The spinners got some turn, and we kept getting wickets at the right time.”
South African skipper Faf du Plessis slammed a 39-ball 50 during the chase and bagged the Man of the Match award. He said CSK's experience of winning big games did the trick, even though they didn't have a very good outing in the last phase of the tournament this season.
“We didn't have the best run in the last five or six games, but we do have a lot of confidence as a team that's won a lot of big games. We drew a lot of strength from that,” he said.
“Our strength is to get partnerships going and extend that, even if we take our time initially. We've got a lot of good batsmen down the order, and we back them to catch up with the required rate.”