When Mitchell McClenaghan returned to bowl his final over at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Saturday evening, Chennai Super Kings were in a comfortable position. With 143/2 on the board after 17 overs, and with Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni in decent ball-striking form, MI needed to apply the brakes on the scoring rate. And McClenaghan, who went for 22 in three overs, did just that. He claimed the wickets of Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo in the space of just three deliveries to throttle CSK. As it happened, CSK ended up with just 169. If not for McClenaghan’s efforts, we would have had to chase a lot more.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, the Kiwi said MI were on the back foot when he came in to bowl the 18th over. Usually, a full-toss bowled outside off-stump lands in the stands. But McClenaghan actually dismissed Dhoni with that ball. Two balls later, he claimed Bravo for a first-ball duck.

“I wasn’t too pumped up. It wasn’t a perfectly-executed ball. I think if Dhoni had gotten going, we won’t have had this discussion here. It was a key wicket. Obviously, I was a little bit lucky with that full-toss. The thing was to take the angle away from him and try to get him to target that short boundary. So it was definitely crucial at that point in the game,” McClenaghan said.

Acknowledging the fact that Dhoni’s wicket was the turning point, he said, “I think it was (the turning point). I thought we bowled well in the Powerplay, but we didn’t pick up too many wickets. So, yeah, the comeback after the timeout put the squeeze on (the scoring rate). It was obviously crucial to put pressure on the back end. It also allowed us to be a little bit aggressive. We tried to take wickets in 16th and 17th overs so that we weren’t on the back foot when we were bowling the final over.”

McClenaghan conceded just four runs to finish with creditable figures of 4-0-26-2. He now has eight wickets in five matches this season.

The 31-year-old said the boys were always trying to get behind each other. Going into Saturday’s game on the back on five losses in six games, MI needed to play fearless cricket. “It was bloody tough. I think we’ve seen that the batsmen have had the upper hand this season. I think it was obviously talked about that we lost a couple of games in the last three or four overs. We’ve all been guilty of just not being able to execute things. But we were also trying to maintain that positive mentality and play fearlessly. And that character comes from the whole group. So we all got together just to fully get behind each other. And, then, you know, it doesn’t matter if we make mistakes. Once we go out there, we just try put the plans in place. Today, I think, we did really well,” he said.

Praising skipper Rohit Sharma for his calm and cool knock, McClenaghan said, “Rohit was exceptional tonight but I think almost all our players did well. The important thing is whether we win or lose, we want to do it together. So, it was not just one person who got us out of the hole. It was going to be a collective effort. Backing up, making sure to attack the ball off the boundary and giving your 100 per cent — it just showed that we were there as a unit. We were trying to dig us out of holes. It’s not going to work. And we might win (some games), some of us might win the Purple Cap or the Orange Cap but we’ll be going home early. Mumbai has a history of winning titles without individuals. No one looks to win the Orange and Purple Caps. They see themselves with the team. We are going to do it together collectively and no one person is more important than anyone else,” he added.

In seven matches this season, Suryakumar Yadav has scored 274 runs at an average of nearly 40. More importantly, he has done it at the top of the innings. McClenaghan doffed his hat to the right-hander. “He’s doing great. He is really taking to the opening role very well. And it’s a good combination with Evin (Lewis). They work very well together. Rohit was asked to bat a little bit lower and strengthen the middle order so that he gets a little bit time to settle. So Surya is going fantastic. He’s fit into the role and is doing what the team has asked him to do. I’m super stoked that he’s doing well,” McClenaghan said.