Mumbai Indians off-spinner Jayant Yadav was pleased after his swift return to the side as his economical spell in the powerplay helped the defending champions gain firm grip of the contest against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Dubai on Saturday (October 31).
Introduced to bowl against some fine players of spin within the DC line-up despite field restrictions, Jayant came out unscathed, ending with figures of 0/18 from his three overs.
He, along with fellow spinner Krunal Pandya (0/13), didn't allow the opposition batters to be in any sort of flow and forced them to attack Trent Boult (3/21) and Jasprit Bumrah (3/17), which backfired as DC could only manage 110/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
"The idea was to extract more spin from the new ball. The feedback from Krunal was 'the ball is stopping a bit'. In powerplay, the plan was pretty simple to contain the runs in whichever way possible, different plans for the different batsman," said Jayant at the post-match press conference, as quoted by ANI.
"Really happy to have a chance to play for Mumbai Indians again and it is all about trying to have an impact whenever you get the chance."
"As players, it is pretty evident that only 11 players can play. There is very clear-cut communication in our camp of matches where I could come in, so I always knew that I will play against Delhi Capitals and I was pretty prepared for it," he added.
While contributing to his success from the other end, Jayant was effusive in praise for left-arm seamer Boult for setting things up nice and early with those breakthroughs.
"Trent Boult is a quality bowler, he is a world-class bowler especially with the new ball. He has always produced two or three wickets in the powerplay. If I'm not wrong, he is the highest wicket-taker in the powerplay this season. That shows the quality," he said.
In the second half, Ishan Kishan batted outstandingly through his unbeaten 72 off 47 balls and took MI home in just 14.2 overs along with Suryakumar Yadav (12*) after the loss of Quinton de Kock (26).
On the back of this result, MI are now guaranteed a finish at the top on the points table. Jayant said nothing changes in terms of preparation and following the process for him or his team despite such a handsome win.
"I think a general idea would be just to keep on doing the simple things right. It is an ongoing process and it is not just planning for the particular game," he said.
MI next face Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their last league stage encounter in Sharjah on Tuesday (November 3), which will be a knock-out game for the opposition.
