Bravo credits Dhoni for his match-winning knock

Chennai: Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Dwayne Bravo credited Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his match-winning whirlwind knock against Cape Cobras, saying the CSK skipper "showed him the way how to play" in the slow Chepauk wicket here.

Chasing Cobras` 145 for seven, CSK rode on Bravo`s 25-ball 46-run unbeaten innings to register its first win in the ongoing Champions League Twenty20. Together with captain Dhoni, Bravo added 43 runs off 39 balls for the sixth wicket to set the platform for the onslaught in the final overs. "You must give credit to MS (Dhoni) because he really showed the way as how to go about in this wicket, placing the ball in the gaps, and running a lot of singles and twos. It was unfortunate he got out but by that time we knew we had a realistic chance of winning the match," Bravo said after CSK`s six-wicket win over Cobras last night. Soon after Dhoni got out, Bravo unleashed himself on pacer Dale Steyn, fetching 17 runs of the penultimate over with a six and a couple boundaries. And Bravo was of the view that Cobras would have been better off with a spinner rather than a fast bower in the final overs. "Taking the pace off the ball is a good idea, but when you have the world`s best bowler in your team, you expect him to take wickets. Today, unfortunately, the balls didn`t come off well for Steyn, and as a batsman I capitalised," he said. Admitting that the pitch was tough, he said teams will be better accustomed to it as the tournament progresses. "It`s a good wicket as it tests your abilities. If you get your eyes in and play proper shots, you will be able to get runs. The pitch is relaid and we are only getting used to it, but as the tournament progresses teams will get accustomed to it," Bravo insisted. The West Indian player backed CSK to chase down anything in the vicinity of 150. "It`s difficult chasing anything close to 150. When chasing such a total, the first six is very important. But we back ourselves chasing down 150. If you don`t panic, any total can be surpassed. That`s key in this format of the game," Bravo added. Cobras captain Justin Kemp praised Bravo for his majestic knock, saying the West Indian single-handedly turned the match on its head in the penultimate over, which yielded 17 runs. He also said that the South African outfit also had to pay for their little mistakes on the ground. "When Dhoni walked in, we wanted to get his wicket and win the game. It was as simple as that. Fortunately, we got him but once again we did mistakes. In this game when you are playing international stars you make mistakes and you are going to pay for them. Every dropped catch and every extra run that you give away comes back to haunt you," Kemp said. "It was a good innings by Dwayne Bravo especially in the manner in which he made 17 runs in the 19th over, which made the change," he added. He, however, praised JP Duminy for his outstanding spell of four wickets for 20 runs. "We knew it is going to get hard and harder with the total that we have posted. But Duminy did exceptionally well and (Justin) Ontong too bowled well. I think as a group all of us did pretty well," the Cobras skipper said. Kemp also said that the Chepauk wicket was not the best strip for Twenty20 cricket. "It is a very slow Chennai wicket. It requires a lot of skill (to bat on this wicket). You cannot score runs in this kind of wickets. I think you require a slightly quicker wickets," he said. "My concern is that the outfield is really wet and we were trying to control the ball. That is all that I think we can do about in these conditions. It is really tough to get going in this sort of wickets," Kemp added. PTI