With the wicket of the dangerous Chamari Athapaththu inside the powerplay to make sure Mumbai Indians had the game firmly in their grasp, you can trust Hayley Matthews to leave a lasting impact on the game. On a day when she missed out with the bat, she found a way to chip in with the ball, and then spoke about a range of topics at the post-match press conference on Thursday (March 8). Excerpts..

On the importance of this win

I think this puts us in a very strong position. It puts us back in second position and looking really good on the table. For the second time in the tournament, what we have been able to do is bounce back from a hard loss, and that gives us a lot of confidence going ahead knowing that even if we falter in one of the games, we still have a core group out there doing a lot of work and getting wins no matter what.

On the role given to Pooja Vastrakar

I think Harry (Harmanpreet Kaur) has just been bowling her when we need her. We’ve got so many options within the team, so many international options. Pooja has been used a lot in the middle overs because we need her there. We have seen Shabnim come and bowl three overs at the start because she has been in such good rhythm. If there is a day when we need her in the powerplay, Harry won’t be hesitant to call her. She has been working hard and has been bowling well in the nets and it is showing up in the results.

Thoughts on the target of 161

With six overs to go we were looking to get more than 160. We then figured we were just around par and had to put up a good bowling performance. We looked at the first two games in Delhi, almost 360-380 runs were scored in each game. Our bowlers then did an exceptional job to restrict them to 120 in the end.

On the superb bowling performance

Pretty much every bowler who stepped out there was able to keep things tight. Shabnim set the tone from the powerplay early. We restricted them to under 20 in the powerplay and it was very hard for them to come back from there. That started everything. Everyone was just able to hold their nerve knowing that the batters would come hard. We were just able to execute even if we missed the one ball and concede a boundary. We saw Saika (Ishaque) get hit for a six twice and come back and pick a wicket off the next ball. That’s exactly what we have been speaking about in meetings, knowing that batters will come hard at us. We just have to be able to hold our nerve.

On Yastika Bhatia’s improved game

Definitely have been seeing her hitting better this year. It shows she’s improved over the last year. Not sure what she’s been eating or doing over the last year, but watching from the non-striker’s end and even from the bench is great to see. The improvements have been massive. She said she is being able to hit the ball a lot further and it is coming with her intent as well. She is pushing for us to be super positive and we have the backing to go out there and free up as well.

On how she sees her personal form

Just keep backing my skills. As a player everyone goes through patches. Yastika and I go out there and try to be really positive, and that is going to bring about some low scores at times. But yeah, feeling really comfortable at the crease. I have not been feeling out of nick. I have been getting starts as well, I just need to carry on a bit more and find a big one, which I hope is not far.

On her plans while bowling in the powerplay

I try to think as a batter. I try to think what I would do in that situation. Obviously every batter is different but openers tend to have a similar mentality and I want to be really aggressive at the top. I just try and use my batting smarts to get into the batter’s head, hopefully correctly a lot of time.