With his team needing a win to keep their playoff aspirations alive, Michael Hussey came up with match knock to help the Chennai Super Kings beat the Kolkata Knight Riders. After Hussey’s 39-ball 56 gave the defending champions the ideal platform to go past KKR’s score of 158, MS Dhoni’s cameo (21-ball 28) and Dwayne Bravo’s last-ball six helped CSK record a memorable win against the hosts.

iplt20.com caught up with Hussey for a quick chat after yet another last-ball finish in the competition.

Congratulations on the win. Two big wins in two nights against the top two teams of the IPL. CSK’s confidence must be on a real high at this moment?

Without doubt. This is a great win coming here. It’s always a tough place to come and win, so to come away with the [two] points is a great achievement by the boys. It [the win] doesn’t get us through yet, so we just have to keep the momentum going. But yes, it is a fantastic win.

CSK has now won four of its last five games. Is the side peaking at the right time?

[Laughs] I prefer to have completely qualified and not have to worry about it. We had got ourselves in a position where we had to win all our matches to get through. We still have to beat Kings XI [Punjab] up in Dharamsala to definitely get through. We played a few close games earlier in the season, which didn’t go our way, but at the same time, luckily for us, a few close games have gone our way.

Has Bravo said anything about what was going through his mind before the last ball?

I haven’t spoken to him yet. But it was simple. We had to hit it for six to get us through or at least a four to get it through to a super over. Thankfully, it had enough legs on it just to get over the boundary and give us a fantastic win.

Is there any extra pressure on the side with as many as four teams competing for a couple of playoff spots?

There is definitely pressure on everyone. But as I said, we have been in this situation before. I think a few years ago, MS [Dhoni] hit two sixes in the last over to get us into the semi-finals. So it’s nice that we’ve experienced it before, but it doesn’t mean that we are going to win again. But it does give us confidence going forward.

You’ve come in from the tour from West Indies and have finally hit your stride. You must be happy with your form?

Yes, today was better. To be honest, I felt a bit sluggish when I first arrived from the West Indies. It took me quite a bit of time to adapt to the Indian conditions and making the transition between Test cricket and T20. I actually had not been feeling that good in the nets or in the matches until probably the last couple of matches.

What makes Sunil Narine so difficult to pick?

I think some of his off-spinners look like doosras and so you are not sure if that is a doosra and whether it going to spin back in and then it actually spins away from the left-hander quite a lot. That takes a little bit of time to get used to. But when you get used to what you’re looking for, then it’s easy to pick. But it’s one thing to pick it and it’s one thing to play it. He is very accurate, gets a lot of bounce, a lot of revs [revolutions] on the ball and that’s makes him very difficult to play. Obviously, his confidence is sky high at the moment as well. He is a class player. Article Source

Kolkata Knight Riders v Chennai Super Kings at Kolkata: Indian Premier League, 2012: Match 63

Kolkata Knight Riders 158/6 (20.0 ov) Chennai Super Kings 160/5 (20.0 ov) Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets

Match Ended Chennai Super Kings RR 8 Last 5 ovs 45/2 RR 9 Kolkata Knight Riders RR 7.9

Refresh Scorecard T20 Career TOP SCORING BATSMEN RUNS B 4S 6S SR THIS BOWLER Last 5 OVS MAT RUNS HS AVG Michael Hussey 56 39 4 4 143.59 25 828 116* 41.4 Murali Vijay 36 25 5 1 144.00 45 1122 127 26.71

LEADING WICKET TAKERS O M R W ECON 0S 4S 6S THIS SPELL MAT WKTS BBI ECON Sunil Narine 4 0 14 2 3.50 13 0 0 11 17 5/19 5.29 Rajat Bhatia 4 0 33 2 8.25 6 1 2 49 37 4/15 7.35

Current over 1W2106 Previous over 446112

Recent partnership: 9 runs, 0.4 overs, RR: 13.50 (Jadeja 3, Bravo 6)

Last wicket fallen: MS Dhoni (C) (W) b Rajat Bhatia 28 (21b 3x4 1x6) SR: 133.33 at 151/5 (19.2 ov); Partnership: 24 runs (Dhoni 19, Bravo 5), 2.1 overs, RR: 11.08