It is no small task to pick 100 wickets in a tournament and Piyush Chawla reached the milestone in the Kolkata Knight Rider’s match against the Delhi Daredevils at the Ferozeshah Kotla. In his fourth game of Pepsi IPL 2015, the leg-spinner opened his account for the season by dismissing two of the host’s batsmen who looked set to take their side to a good score

Chawla bowled Shreyas Iyer and then had Yuvraj Singh stumped to help rein in the hosts to a sub-par score and tip the balance in KKR’s favour. Speaking to ipt20.com, the KKR bowler, who has became the fourth bowler to take 100 wickets in the Indian Premier League, discussed his tactics while bowling in the tournament.

Excerpts:

Congratulations! You must be happy to get 100 wickets in IPL?

Yes, obviously because we all know it is a prestigious tournament. Players from across the world come to play in this tournament and it is quite challenging. Reaching that landmark of 100 wickets is something I will cherish.

Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra have had decent success here. Did that also help coming into the match?

I have always done well in Delhi whenever I have played here because it is a slow wicket. The ground is on the smaller side, but it is okay; if you bowl well on this wicket it is always difficult for the batsmen.

You dismissed two batsmen – Shreyas Iyer and Yuvraj Singh - who were getting in the groove. How had you planned for those dismissals?

I knew I just had to follow my basics and bowl at a good pace. I knew I couldn’t really flight (the ball) too much on this ground because there wasn’t much help from the wicket. It was a little bit on the slower side so I was using a flatter trajectory today and it helped me a lot.

Has batsmen’s approach to leg-spinners in T20 changed over time in IPL?

If you see, lot of leg-spinners have picked wickets in recent times. You know, batsmen sometimes look at a leg-spinner as a scoring option. On the other hand we leg-spinners have (used) that attacking thinking (to our advantage) as well; we know that we might go for a couple of boundaries but (at the same time) we might get wickets (due to that). As a leg-spinner I am more than happy conceding two boundaries and getting a wicket.

Your four overs were spaced out today. How is that worked out? Wasn’t it tempting to continue after getting a wicket?

It all depends on the team’s plans. Sometimes a new batsman walks in and with Morne Morkel’s pace it’s not really easy to adjust straight away; so that’s the planning behind it. Sometimes Morne comes in to bowl (sometimes the others); fortunately all the three fast bowlers that we have are quite quick and they can touch the 140 (kmph) mark. So that really helps.

Good to get your first wickets this season?

The season has just started and it’s just two wickets. In the first two games I hardly bowled but after this game (I am) getting the confidence back. Bowling four overs in this ground and getting two wickets and not giving away too many runs, it obviously boosts your confidence as a bowler.

The way you got Yuvraj Singh out, the batsman was surprised. Can you tell us more about that dismissal?

It was the last ball (of the over and the 4-over quota) and I wanted to concede just a single of the last ball and finish it off well. But when it hit his pad he thought it went to fine leg and started running. Moments later he realised it was just there (behind him, and the wicketkeeper had collected it and flicked the bails off); by the time he wanted to get back it was too late for him.

The dressing room happy with the way things are so far?

Yes! Three wins out of four, we will take that any day.