NEWS
Follow UsAt 35, Piyush Chawla may not exude the same excitement among the aficionados of spin bowling as he used to a decade ago. Still, his uncanny ability to pick wickets was vindicated once again on Tuesday, as he bowled a match-winning spell for Mumbai Indians on a tricky surface.
Despite half-centuries from David Warner and Axar Patel, Delhi Capitals could only muster 172 runs, which MI chased down on the last ball of the match. Chawla admitted that it was tough to bat on the surface and duly credited the batters for chasing the total down.
“This pitch wasn’t easy. We thought 170 is as good as 190, but the start Rohit and Ishan gave us, the way they utilized the new ball and got 70 runs in 6 overs on this wicket, is a great start. That set the momentum for us. Tilak batted well. All our batters batted beautifully,” Chawla said during the post-match conference.
“Even after scoring 70 runs in the first 6 overs, the game went on till the last ball so you can only imagine that the pitch wasn’t easy. If you want to slow down the run rate in this format, you have to take wickets. So leg spinners have the wicket-taking ability. Even if they make slight changes in their wrist movement, that’s a variation,” he added.
Delhi Capitals had a reasonable start, scoring 51/1 in the powerplay when Chawla came into the attack. After an eight-run first over, the 34-year-old struck in each of his remaining three overs which he bowled unchanged in a four-over spell. Chawla did that despite not playing many domestic matches, but he stated that his willingness to deliver in every situation helps.
“I’m not playing much of cricket like domestic or competitive cricket, but I make sure whatever game I play, I put my more than 100% and body on the line. If you talk about watching cricket, I don’t watch much cricket, to be honest, because I feel if you bowl a good ball, it’s a good ball in any format and for any batter, so I just prepare myself.”
