VB Thiruvallur Veerans' NS Chaturved speaks about loss of Baba Aparajith

VB Thiruvallur Veerans NS Chaturved played a vital knock and helped his team reach a respectable total, which they defended with elan, against Madurai Super Giants at NPR College Ground, Dindigul, on Monday, August 29. He spoke exclusively to the India Cements Tamil Nadu Premier League website after his knock.

Was the pitch batsman-friendly even today?The main reason to take batting as an option after winning the toss was because it was a batting pitch. We thought it was a belter, but it wasn’t as expected. The ball wasn’t coming easily to the bat, the wicket was two-paced and I had the major responsibility to score runs because I got a good start. So I was focussing on that.

As a senior player, how did you influence your young team?It was all about motivating the boys and making them believe in their ability. Everybody out there is exceptionally talented and we just want to bring out the best in them, by encouraging them.

Talk us through the last two overs of the Madurai innings.I had the confidence in our boys because I have seen them practising in the nets. They were very fast to grasp the plans the execute them really well. The penultimate over by R Rohit was an exceptional one and the boys are feeling pumped up now.

Did you feel Baba Aparajith’s absence at some point of time in the game?A player of Aparajith’s calibre will surely be missed by any team but we knew we could come up with good performances even in his absence because we have a good team.

You look like the team to beat in this tournament..What we all like about our team is we are all young and energetic and we all gel very well and that is very important. As experts tell, it is not about big names on the paper, it is about how we combine as a team during the tournament. We are starting to produce results and I hope we go a long way.