Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni called Dwayne Bravo his 'brother' in the press conference after a 6-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Friday (September 24). He revealed they mostly fight while discussing their bowling plans for the death overs.
Bravo was the Player-of-the-Match for his bowling performance (3/24) which restricted RCB to 156/6 in 20 overs, despite scoring 90 runs off the first 10 overs. The all-rounder picked up wickets of RCB skipper Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and Harshal Patel.
Speaking on CSK's performance and their tactics, Dhoni said, "We were worried about the dew and we saw that last season. They got off to a great start and after the eighth or ninth over, the pitch slowed down a bit. Jadeja's spell was very crucial especially with the way Padikkal was batting from one end.
"I told Moeen that he would bowl from one end during drinks, but then I changed my mind. I decided Bravo should bowl because the more you delayed him, the more difficult it was given that he'd have to bowl four straight overs in these difficult conditions.
"Our players have worked hard and understood their roles and responsibilities. All three grounds here are different. This one is the slowest of the lot. I felt the left-right combination here was important with the bat. We bat deep with a lot of lefties and all of them are good to bat at any position, which is why we pushed Raina and Rayudu down," he added.
The Caribbean all-rounder has been outstanding with the ball in the last two matches. Bravo had performed well against Mumbai Indians (MI) as well, where he picked up 3/25.
"Bravo is fit and executing them well. I call him my brother and we always have fights over whether he should bowl the slower ball. But now everyone knows that he has the slower ball, so I told him to bowl six different balls in an over," CSK captain said.
Bravo said he uses his experience to come good in tough situations. He also mentioned the importance of Kohli's wicket after RCB piled up a solid opening partnership.
"IPL is the toughest competition in the world. It works on some days and on some days it doesn't. My pride and my love for this game keeps me going. Virat was a very important wicket and RCB are a big side."
"I just wanted to keep it simple. As I said, preparation is the key for me. I practice in the nets, keep myself healthy and use my experience to come up in these situations. Experience will always get us through in this franchise. The message from the coach in the dressing room is that we might not always be the quickest, but we will get the job done," he added.
