Aggressive fielding set-up tempted me to go over the top - Abu Nechim

Abu Nechim Ahmed (centre) while representing Mumbai Indians

Royal Challengers Bangalore fast bowler Abu Nechim, who hit a boundary off the penultimate ball of the match to seal a victory in a low-scoring thriller against Chennai Super Kings at Ranchi, said that the aggressive field set up by MS Dhoni tempted him to go over the top.

When asked what was going on in his mind while stepping out to bat with 1 needed off 2 deliveries, he said: “All the fielders were inside the circle and I was just thinking of stepping out and hitting the ball over the field if the ball was there to be hit or else take a single.”

Nechim, together with Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, put on a stellar death bowling show to restrict the Super Kings to just 138 when they were looking well set to score 160-odd runs with Suresh Raina and Dhoni at the crease. The duo conceded only 21 runs off the last 4 overs on a wicket that had little in it for the pacers.

The Assam pacer said: “Mitchell (Starc) and I bowled really well in the last four overs. I think that was very crucial because we could restrict them to just a 130-plus total.” he said.

“All we had planned was to restrict the opposition to as low a total as possible. We just tried to implement our plans and my strength is bowling wicket-to-wicket and that’s what I did besides slipping in a slow bouncer or a wide yorker. I just tried some variations,” he added.

On how the pitch behaved, the 25-year-old, who ended up with figures of 4-0-18-1, said: “In fact when we looked at the wicket yesterday (Saturday), we had discussed that it could be a slow wicket.”

“Initially it was not turning that much, it was rather skidding for the pacers. But it wasn’t easy to bat in the second innings. It had become slower and the ball was turning a lot. It looked a bit difficult for us but Gayle had a good partnership with Virat (Kohli) and then AB (de Villiers) and Yuvi pa (Yuvraj Singh) batted really well. We had the belief that if not AB then Yuvi will win it for us. Both did well, especially AB,” he added.