TNPL 2016: We intended to take the game to the final over, says Dindigul Dragons' Murugan Ashwin

Dindigul Dragons’ M Ashwin addressed the media after his team’s thrilling super-over win against Albert Tuti Patriots in their India Cements TN Premier League match at the India Cements Limited Cricket Ground at Sankarnagar, Tirunelveli, on Sunday. Here is an excerpt from the transcript. What are your thoughts on winning four out of four? We are happy because we have played as a unit. We have done well in all three departments – batting, bowling and fielding. In the first three games, the openers played well and in this game the middle order also contributed. How do feel on winning in the super-over? We can’t single out one person for the win. They started well and we were able to bounce back. Even when our openers got out, the middle-order contributed. Also, when R Vivek and Ganga (Sridhar Raju) hit 12 runs in the super-over, the pressure was on them. T Natarajan’s good form enabled us to place faith in him during the super-over. Why was the run-chase stretched to the last five overs? We knew the nature of wicket when we bowled and we also wanted to score big in the first six overs. Since we couldn’t do that, we thought of taking it till the 20th over. When I settled down I knew who bowled and when. So I played on the back foot and also took a lot of chances. When Vivek came in and hit a six the pressure was on them. Compare this victory to the team's first three wins... All teams are good and the spinners have also been phenomenal. The wicket assisted spinners and it was tough (for batsmen). That is why we took it till the last over. Whose decision it was to promote you up the order? It was decided by Mr. Venkatramana (coach), Ashwin Venkatraman (stand-in captain) and also Subramaniya Siva. We decided that the first six overs were crucial and we had to hit runs as the ball will not turn much. My role was to get a good start in the first few overs. When the wicket became difficult to bat on, I decided to take the match till the last over. Have you done any extra work on your batting? I usually bowl a lot and batting is something that comes pretty naturally to me. I have been scoring big in the first-division tournament in Chennai and have also scored a 50 in the Buchi Babu tournament. That gave me a lot of confidence to do well in the match. I also wanted to make full use of the opportunity to play out 18 overs in a T20 game.