After three straight defeats, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bounced back to winning ways, beating Delhi Capitals (DC) by 23 runs on Saturday. While Sanju Samson’s unbeaten 115 hogged the limelight, the performance of the bowling unit was equally impressive, with Jamie Overton emerging as the pick of the bowlers, claiming 4/18 and paving the way for the hosts to win their first home game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium after six attempts.
After putting up 212/2 on the board, CSK looked energetic on the field. The body language, which appeared to drop in the last couple of outings, was in contrast on Saturday, with Sarfaraz Khan’s splendid catch at point to dismiss Axar Patel, lifting the morale of the team.
“I mean, it’s always been about this tournament, you need to get on a roll, and you need to get the positivity going, but there’s a lot of positivity around the camp, obviously, after a win like this, but even leading into it, the practices have been good, the attitudes have been good. Today, the self-belief was very good; was it lagging behind the previous games? No, I don’t think so, I mean, I think it was a lack of self-belief, I think, you know, it’s funny, often fielding is the mood of a team, and Sarfaraz takes the catch like this, it just lifts everybody, so that happens. I’d say the boys really were desperate to win this one today. I think we were tired of losing after losing 2-3 in a row, so there was a certain attitude about the guys rather than anything else, but the self-belief has always been there,” CSK bowling coach Eric Simons said at the post-match press conference.
Coming into the game, there were doubts about whether CSK would be able to recover from the hiding they received at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru last Sunday. And despite those three defeats, Simons insisted that the mood in the dressing room wasn’t down.
“I think it is a habit, you get used to it, you get used to getting into tough situations and getting yourself out. The mood in the changing room tonight is obviously really good, but it never really dropped, I mean it was always a case of, I really mean it, I think people looked at the RCB game and thought we were a long way behind, we didn’t think we were a long way behind, the numbers probably, we could have easily found 30 runs with your bowl, then you chase at 220 and you get to 210 having lost an early wicket, so we didn’t feel we were a long way behind, so there’s a lot of positivity anyway,” the South African said.
Though Overton didn’t walk away with the Man of the Match award, Simons was all praise for the English pacer. Bowling in the mid-140kmphs, Overton’s ability to hit the hard lengths and to take the pace of the ball ended up proving crucial on this pitch, where close to 400 runs were scored.
“I think the important thing is that each person finds their way of doing the job in the area of the game than he has to bowl. So he tried something last week which didn’t work, but he really went with his strengths tonight, went with the hard lengths, he’s always had a good yorker. He’s worked on an off pace delivery, which, when you’re bowling 150 kilometres an hour, and you’ve got an off pace delivery that’s under 120, then it’s really effective, so he’s done some work on that as well,” Simons said.
