Du Plessis: CSK Desperate To Win More Trophies

Hyderabad: Chennai Super Kings were reeling at 41/3 in the semifinal against Kings XI Punjab. Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo steadied the ship with a steady 65-run stand for the fourth wicket. While Bravo was at his aggressive best, du Plessis played the second fiddle and scored an important 46 off 33 balls to help CSK reach 182/7.

Speaking to clt20.com, du Plessis said that the team handled pressure well and his partnership with Bravo, combined with some aggressive hits from Ravindra Jadeja down the order helped CSK reach a good total in the end. "We wanted to get a partnership and it was important to knock the ball around for two or three overs. I thought we did really well to hit the gaps in the field, not necessarily taking the guys in the fence on. It was about taking calculated risks. That is something which lacked in the Kings XI Punjab innings. They kept trying to hit boundaries. With the wicket being a little two paced, you needed a little more batsmanship than power," he said.

Du Plessis said that he was not too bothered about his constant shuffling in the batting order. "I think all of our batsmen from batting positions 5, 6 & 7 play a similar role where they all come in and look to be aggressive. With Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina at the top it is all power and all guns blazing. It was important for someone to strike a balance between all that firepower. I am used to opening the batting in T20 cricket and tonight I got an opportunity to go in the fifth over and counter-attack and play a bit aggressively. When the field went back, I saw myself looking into my role back at number four. It was then about hitting the spaces and running well between the wickets."

Du Plessis, who scored three centuries in the recent tri-series in Zimbabwe, added that he felt good about his batting. He said that the main aim for CSK was to win as many trophies as they can. "We are done with one step but we have another big game coming up against KKR who are a very good team. We are very pumped up. We don’t want to get to another final and lose. We want to get the silverware. "