CSK's astute game plans and a celebration that saw daylight

Latest on Once Upon An IPL Final is Albie Morkel, who looks back at Chennai Super Kings' title win in IPL 2011. their second on the trot in what was their third appearance in the tournament's summit clash.

It was one of the better IPLs for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who finished the league stage of the fourth edition of the IPL - a 10-team event - at the top of he table.In the first Qualifier, RCB managed to post a competitive total of 175, with a 22-year-old Virat Kohli (70* off 44) powering the effort. CSK lost their openers early in the chase and were reduced to 131 for 4 in the 17th over when MS Dhoni was dismissed.It came down to 33 off the last two overs when Morkel (28* off 10) and Suresh Raina (73* off 50) helped their team over the line with two deliveries to spare, booking a spot in the final at Chepauk where they hadn't lost a single game that season.

We played RCB in one of the playoffs game. We came from behind, we shouldn't have won that game but we won it. Our confidence against them was pretty high. They've always had three very dangerous batters in AB, Gayle and Kohli. In that season, Ashwin got the better of AB and Gayle in the games we played against them. So we had a nice game plan against them which worked in most of the games. We played the final in Chennai where that year the wicket was very slow, it was very dry and not a lot of grass on it. We actually played on a turning track. Our confidence was very high. If I remember correctly, we never really lost games at home and we knew that teams travelling there, to win the toss and bat first, it was a tough place to chase in the evening. We knew that playing a home final, we'll have that advantage.

You met RCB once again in the final. The South Indian derby is normally quite the spectacle, isn't it?

It's massive, RCB-Chennai games have always been high-intensity, high-scoring games. And also they had never won a final. We knew that they were going to come with that expectation to win their first trophy. Virat Kohli is a guy that really gets up for a battle, it's always big. And Chennai, we've been in most of the finals so we sort of knew how to handle those occasions probably a little bit better. We had just beaten them a couple of days prior. Gayle was the edge but that year they struggled a bit with their bowling attack. Just one frontline bowler in Zaheer Khan. We knew that if we could get two wickets, two of the three big guys, then they were a team for the taking.

Despite the presence of big names in the RCB batting department, CSK had their plans in place - especially for Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers...

Gayle was hitting the seamers wherever he wanted, all series. He sort of slowed down, his strike rate slowed down against the spinners. Obviously he would hit them for sixes but his strike rate definitely slowed down. We tried it in the game in Bangalore. In that game AB and Gayle opened the batting and Ashwin got them out (dismissed AB). We saw that Gayle definitely wasn't comfortable against Ashwin and he got him out in the qualifier game and again in the final. I think it became sort of a mental battle for him as well. Even when the seamers bowled, we were bowling a high percentage of slower balls, just took the pace off completely and he seemed to struggle against it.

That was obviously a game plan that worked - Ashwin bowling to Gayle. You could see that in his body language that he was unsure of how to approach or how to play Ashwin. Ashwin that year was really on fire, he had the ball that sort of skids straight on, he had a good arm ball, he was turning the ball. When the first ball turned past the bat then we knew we were in the game. It was also a big blow for a chasing team - if your top batsman, the danger guy, gets out for nought that's a big blow for the team and they never recovered after that. The intensity and the pace of the game was just too much for them.

Once you got those two guys (Gayle and AB) the game was as good as over. Kohli on that night scored a run-a-ball 30 (35 off 32), so he was also struggling a bit. AB actually got two early boundaries away and he looked very dangerous. Jakati got him out LBW. This was also a ploy against AB. When he came in we were going to bowl a left-arm spinner. The fact that he'd been struggling a little bit with left-arm spin. Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh] got him out a couple of times in international games, so we went for that option and that also worked that evening. AB got him away for two fours and then he got him out LBW. I suppose you can say all our plans came together that evening.

CSK had the luxury of a three-day break before the final while RCB had played just the previous night before the final, winning against Mumbai Indians in the second Qualifier. CSK, meanwhile, were being CSK - cool and composed as their captain, keeping all discussions to a minimum, and had the experience of a couple of title wins to boot.

All I can remember is that Dhoni is not a very big believer of team meetings. We had our game plans that we'd played with throughout the tournament and we stuck to that. We were very successful with that and there was no need to change anything for the final in conditions that you are really comfortable and really know. So I don't think we had too many discussions. It was all about staying calm and not getting that feeling of pressure in a final - most of the chats were around that. And Dhoni was very good with that. He's a calm leader, you never think that he's under pressure. Even though I'm sure he's under a lot of pressure. He hides it pretty well. He takes the pressure off the senior players and gets the best out of these players.

The advantage of playing the first game (playoff) and winning it, you go directly into the final and Bangalore had to play an extra game. It's always tough - back to back games, or back to back to back games in their case. (In) India is going to be challenging for any player, it was quite hot and humid, and the travelling. You can say we had the easy seat in but we still had to do the hard yards before that.

Chasing 200 - after a loss, then travel, then they won (in the second qualifier) and entered the final - it was always going to be a tough task. The conditions in Chennai that year were really tough to chase scores. As you can see, Ashwin in the final took three wickets under 20 in four overs. He was definitely kingpin for us in that tournament and he stood up again in the final.

Apart from the spin strategy that served them well at home, CSK also had another process going well for them - win the toss and bat first. Once Dhoni managed to do that, it was as good as half the battle won.

That was our game plan the whole season - bat first and bat the team out of the game. It became very important to score runs in the first six overs with the new ball. After that, once you can take the pace off with the field out, it's tough, especially boundaries. So 140-160 was a winning score if you could bat first. Setting is always easier in tough conditions than chasing. Because if you chase and you lose a couple of wickets, and the new batsman facing a few dot balls, you've got scoreboard pressure with the run-rate climbing all the time.

That was always our strategy - to win the toss. The toss that year played a massive role, if you won the toss it's basically 50 percent of the game won already. It was big for us and a relief for us when Dhoni said he wants to bat (after winning the toss in the final). We all watch him when he goes out for the toss and we pray that he wins the toss so that we can bat first. It was more a case of that.

In the Qualifier game, Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay had been dismissed cheaply by RCB's new-ball pair of Zaheer Khan and S Aravind. Eager to make amends for their previous failure, the CSK openers came up with a huge partnership - worth 159 runs in less than 15 overs. And the result of that not only ensured that CSK finished with a big total of 205 but it also left the RCB players deflated.

Another strategy we had there was to maybe start our innings a little bit slower and definitely have wickets at the end - so that you have a platform to cash on and get to a total of 160 to 180. That was the mindset throughout the whole innings, to get to a total of 150-160, because they have been winning totals. We felt that we could defend that. But they (openers) got off to a fantastic start.

RCB, on the night, the bowlers weren't on fire, they bowled us a lot of bad balls, and runs got scored square of the wicket. And then when they started to go full and try the yorkers, that also didn't work. Maybe you can put it down to...the bowlers were probably tired after those three back-to-back games. Chennai, as we know, is a very hot place and even in the evenings it's still 36-38 degree Celsius, there's high humidity. Maybe they were a little bit tired but we definitely cashed in and to score 205, they were never going to get it.

I think he [Daniel Vettori] even said after the game that we needed that (to win the toss). When we won the toss and we scored a good total, they were always going to struggle. But you could see the vibe of the team, they had no vibe on the field. Damage had been done by Vijay and Hussey with their 150-partnership. The rest of us actually struggled to score runs. I didn't score runs, Bravo scored a six, and no one else scored runs except the first two. That shows how tough it is, to lose a wicket and for a new guy to come in and score at run-a-ball plus, it was very difficult. RCB knew that, they had lots of clever cricketers on the field and they would have known that the damage was done with that first partnership.

The other factor that was key in CSK winning the title

I think if you look at the history of CSK, they sort of kept their main, core players together. So the guys were really comfortable with each other. By then we had won the tournament once or twice, we won the Champions League. So we knew our games, we had a very good team spirit on and off the field. That's something that most of the other teams were sort of lacking. They kept on changing their personnel, new players every year. It's tough to build on that, especially if the playing field is not level anymore. You get a new team coming every year, with new players and when you play against a team that's sort of settled and got a set game plan then it becomes tough to beat them.

So for the first six years that was definitely our strength. And that's why Mumbai also became a strong team. They followed the same sort of trend where they keep the core of their senior or good players and they build around that. That's the main reason, and obviously a strong leader in Dhoni - he's settled with the conditions, he's settled with how to get the best out of the bowlers and how to read a situation and captain accordingly. He had certain plans but he captained definitely on what he saw every game on the field.

Celebrations and an early morning flight

The celebrations are always good. We had a really nice squad together. I think the overseas guys, their flights were booked for the very next morning at about 7:00. We went straight from the change room to the hotel, had a big celebration there, and from there without sleeping went straight to the plane. So it's always good. IPL is a very tough tournament, high-quality cricket, conditions are tough, it's hard travelling every second day, it takes its toll. So when you win the tournament like that everyone will feel relieved and it's a right thing to have a good celebration.

As told to Gokul Gopal