Mumbai Indians all-rounder Daniel Sams believes he was not focusing on his own strengths at the beginning of the season and thus he could not deliver for the franchise. However, the Australian has bounced back stronger in the last few matches as he trained accordingly after taking his lessons.
Earlier in the season, Sams was hit for 35 runs in an over by his compatriot Pat Cummins, who raced to the joint-fastest fifty in the history of the IPL. The left-arm fast bowler returned with impressive figures of 3-16 in his quota of four overs against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday.
There was swing on offer and Sams was right on the money as he played a key role in skittling out the opposition at 97 runs, which is CSK’s second-lowest total in the IPL history.
Sams accounted for Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Moeen Ali as he broke the spine of CSK’s top order. However, he was lucky to dismiss the New Zealander as DRS was not available due to a power-cut issue.
Sams was awarded the Player of the Match award for his fine show with the ball. He said in the post-match presentation, “The first few games didn’t go to plan. Had a little bit of time to reflect on those performances. I just figured out that I was focusing on the batter too much and not on my strengths. That was something to work on at training. We have different plans for different batters. We spoke about a lot – using the bouncer to all batters. (Batting at No. 3) I was really excited to get the opportunity, that’s something MJ (Mahela Jayawardene) spoke about to me today. Any opportunity with the bat, I am more than happy. The whole IPL, beautiful wickets to bowl on. It’s been enjoyable, today’s pitch was bowling-friendly. Good to see a T20 game where the bowlers dominate.”
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians’ Director of Cricket Operations Zaheer Khan was delighted with the team’s performance and feels it was an important win for the team’s morale after a forgettable season.
He said after the game, “Every game is important, you are out there to experience the thrill of winning a match, especially after the kind of tournament we have had. We’ve tried really hard to keep everyone together, to keep the processes going, to keep the approach towards the game very pure. Great to see things coming together, great to see some swing today from the bowlers and pacers dominating. This IPL was very exciting, great to see bowlers really putting batters under pressure, and there are many exciting bowlers this year and great to see that speedometer going higher and higher with every team having 1-2 bowlers who can create that impact.”
He added, “Towards the last leg, we did try a different approach in terms of personnel, resting a few seniors. We’ve never had that opportunity, so even if we had a tough season the talk was about giving a few youngsters a chance to experience a tournament like the IPL. Pollard has been one of the main contributors to the success of this franchise over the years, he’s been part of the processes through and through. Like I mentioned, it is the last leg of the tournament, so that’s why a few new faces and as an individual and as a member of the core group, he (Pollard) was on board, it wasn’t easy on him but he made it easy for us. He has been a great team man and even today it was nice to see his contributions from the sidelines.”
MI will next face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday.
