Chennai Super Kings' 'Unbelievable' Weapon Powers Surge in IPL 2015
Chennai Super Kings pacer Ashish Nehra swears he is not changed his bowling one bit. Sticking to his strengths though has helped him reap rich rewards as the 36-year-old has emerged as one of the top bowlers in this season of the Indian Premier League.
He last played an international match four years ago. His body has seen 36 years and may not be in the shape that allowed him to claim 157 ODI wickets. And yet, Ashish Nehra has shattered every criticism, masked every disbelief and surged to be one of the biggest weapons in the Chennai Super Kings arsenal this year.
For a team that has almost as many star performers on the bench as on the field, carving a name could not have been easy. For an India discard whose name was etched but got withered with time, it would have been even tougher. That though is precisely what makes Nehra's 22 wickets in IPL 2015 even more spectacular - not good, not great but outright spectacular. The old war-horse though knows only too well that lows follow highs and in this game, one is as good as the wickets he takes.
"When you pick wickets, people remember you more," Nehra said in an interview to iplt20.com after Chennai qualified for a record sixth IPL final.
"It is not that Ashish Nehra has changed. People are noticing it more because I am 36 and a guy at this age is doing something unbelievable in T20s. But I have been doing the same things that I have been doing over the last ten years."
Factoids:
* Nehra claimed three for 23 in the 2015 league match between Chennai and Mumbai. His wickets included opener Parthiv Patel, Corey Anderson and Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma.
* Nehra was wicket-less in the return fixture.
* In the 1st qualifier, Nehra removed youngster Hardik Pandya.
* He has five man-of-the-match awards this season. It is the first time that he has got more than three in a single IPL season.
In the crucial eliminator match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Nehra bowled his heart out - getting three wickets and yet another man-of-the-match award in exchange. What added feather to the pacer's cap at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi was the fact that none of his three wickets were of middle or lower-order batsmen but those of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik.
"Every game you play, you do a lot of homework against your opposition," admitted Nehra.
"The batsmen too prepare themselves to bat against the opposition bowlers. You have to realise that if you are playing 14 to 15 games, you are not going to perform (all the time), but majority of the times you are going to perform if you are on top of your game."
Nehra though is not content enjoying just the view from the top but is working hard to stay there. Chennai play Mumbai once again but this time, the stakes are a lot higher than ever before. Nehra is well aware of what's at stake and is raring to fire.
"We lost against Mumbai Indians in the league stage and we will look to win. It will be an even contest but if we play to our potential we can beat Mumbai Indians and lift the trophy," he said.