IPL 2019 | Conditions and player specific plans have helped Mumbai Indians, says Jayant Yadav

Mumbai Indians possess the most all-round attack in the Indian Premier League. They are not just batting heavy despite their home ground of Wankhede Stadium being a batsmen’s paradise. They proved their abilities by pouncing with a three-man spin attack on the Chennai Super Kings batsman in the first qualifier, that too on the latter's home ground. Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav and Krunal Pandya, all three spinners dismissed the top three batsmen of CSK one by one by deceiving them with their spin on a turning track. The home team was restricted to 131 which was chased down by MI comfortably. Yadav feels that making different plans for different individuals have greatly helped MI this season.

"Our plans, batting or bowling have been condition specific. For example, in Wankhede we had different plans to different people, Chennai was different plans to different people," he said at the post-match press conference, reported Cricketnext.

"So, it is about gearing yourself up tactically to the situations and executing those plans to the hilt.” 

Jayant himself was playing only in his second match this season. He first played on a slow track in Delhi followed by the game on Tuesday. He bowled one over in the powerplay and scalped one wicket while only giving away six runs. The right-hander, who returned with figures of 25 for one in three overs, pointed out that he was included in the playing XI in order to bowl against the left-handers.

"I played in Chennai because the track here offers spin. I played as an extra spinner and my match-up was against lefties or bowling in the power play. So, yeah I think that was a tactical decision and came off well in the end," explained the off-spinner.

MI had defeated CSK thrice in as many games this season and two of those wins have come at Chennai itself. No other team has dominated like MI while playing at the MA Chidambaram stadium and thereby, Jayant remarked that defeating the defending champions at their fortress was a big deal.

"Beating Chennai anywhere is a huge deal because Chennai is a complete team and they have a great leader. Their spinners also got enough bite and enough turn," the 29-year-old expressed.

"I just think because they had to bat first and put on a total, they were trying to take chances. When Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) or when Imran Tahir was bowling there was adequate spin and adequate turn. The advantage that we had was we knew after 11 overs we are chasing just around six runs an over. That played a part."

Skipper Rohit Sharma had used five different bowlers in the powerplay overs and Jayant shared that the idea behind it was to ensure that the batsmen don’t get used to any bowler.

"I think in the power play, the batsman cannot get used to you because if he understands what you are trying to do in different deliveries, he can really size you up because of the field restrictions. Rohit, I think has been brilliant with that and it was just one of those occasions when he juggled his bowlers to the best situation,” he signed off.