Rohit juggled his bowlers brilliantly: Jayant

It was yet another clinical performance from the Mumbai Indians as they defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to make it to their fifth IPL final.

After restricting CSK to a paltry 131/4, Mumbai rode on a brilliant unbeaten knock of 71 from Suryakumar Yadav and chased down the target with nine balls to spare to make it to the finals of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), here on Tuesday.

Off-spinner Jayant Yadav, who was included in the playing XI on a turning Chepauk wicket, said Mumbai's ability to field a side specific to the conditions they were playing in was one of the biggest reasons for their success in this season.

"Beating Chennai anywhere is a great feat because they are a complete team and they have a great leader. 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," said Jayant at the post-match press conference.

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

Jayant, who has played just two games in this edition, said his role in the team was to bowl in the power play and trouble the left-handers with the ball turning away.

"I played in Chennai because the track offers spin here. I came in as the extra spinner. My match-up was against the left handers and bowling in the powerplays. It was a tactical decision which came off in the end."

One of the other things that went in Mumbai's favour was that their spinners outshined their Chennai counterparts with Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, and Jayant claiming all four CSK wickets to fall and returned combined figures of 4/60 in their 11 overs.

After restricting CSK to a below par total, Mumbai made light work of their chase and won the match losing just four wickets.

"I think their spinners also bowled really well. It was just that they were batting first and had to put up a total. When Jaddu or Imran was bowling, there was adequate turn. "The advantage that we had was we knew after 11 overs we were chasing just around six runs an over. That played a part," explained Jayant.

Another tactic which Rohit Sharma applied well during the course of the game was that he shuffled his bowlers well during the powerplays. In fact, he used five bowlers inside the first six overs and Jayant said the reason for this was not letting the batsmen get used to one type of a bowler during the field restrictions.

"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," Jayant said.

"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 added.

--IANS

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