He might have started late due to injury, but Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has already shown what he is capable of with the ball and Wednesday was again one such day as he picked three wickets giving away 37 runs from his four overs as CSK restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 167 in their 20 overs in Abu Dhabi.
Bravo revealed that while he was looking to be defensive in his approach, skipper MS Dhoni had other ideas as he wanted the pacer to go all out.
“I was looking to be defensive but MS Dhoni wanted me to hit the hard lengths and keep the new batsman on strike for as long as possible. It is good to have this experience around and have these discussions. I stuck to bowling the hard lengths and it worked,” he said.
Asked about the conditions on offer, Bravo said that the wicket is good for batting and he had to look at his yorker to restrict the KKR batsmen who like most others were looking at his slower ball.
“It is a very good batting wicket and there isn’t much grip. Most batsmen look for my slower balls. The yorker is the best ball and the safest ball. The game plan was to bowl wide and bowl as many yorkers as possible,” he revealed.
Having missed the first few games, one would think that Bravo would be frustrated. But the senior campaigner said it wasn’t the case at all. “I wasn’t frustrated, obviously I came in with a groin injury but I was happy to see guys like Sam Curran and Hazlewood get good experience. At my age it doesn’t make sense to play all games. When I get the opportunity, I back myself to do well,” he said.
Bravo also said that the team would take KKR’s total and the CSK bowlers put up a good show. While Bravo finished with three wickets, Karn Sharma (2/25), Shardul Thakur (2/28) and Sam Curran (2/26) also bowled well. “We’ll take 167. They were in a good position to get more and I would like to give credit to our bowlers. Karn in his first game and Thakur was brilliant as well. We back our batters to get it, it should be a good run chase,” he said.
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