Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batsman Faf du Plessis played an important finishing knock in match number 20 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Wednesday at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, where he scored 33 runs from just 18 balls.
To everyone's surprise he was sent in at number six while CSK were batting first while skipper MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja came to bat ahead of him.
Suresh Raina came in at number three and set the tone for the rest of the batsmen. His knock of 62 runs from just 39 balls and du Plessis's show at the end propelled CSK to a commanding total of 181. And it proved to be rather diffcult for the out-of-form RCB.
In a chat with the official website of the IPL, du Plessis discussed about his changing roles in the CSK side. He started off as an opening batsman for them in 2012 and in the last season, he batted at fourth position and did reasonably well throughout the tournament by scoring over 300 runs.
"I wouldn't mind going back up the order. But we have such an explosive opening pair now and they are doing a great job. I'll just do whatever the captain and the coach tell me to do, but opening the batting is nice," said Faf during that chat.
"My role is more of gelling the rest of the batting unit together. Last year I batted at No. 4. We have so many power-hitters and I am not necessarily one of them.
"I am a power-hitter when I am opening the batting but coming in at the latter stage and hitting is a different skill. My batting position is flexible in the team. If we lose wickets upfront, I go in at No. 4 and if we have a good opening partnership Dhoni goes in ahead of me," added Faf.
When asked about taking up the role of a finisher in the side, he said he is till learning and it is a wonderful opportunity for him. "I am learning. It is a new thing for me and something that I want to improve on. My whole life I have batted higher up the order and it is good for my game that I have been given an opportunity to learn how to finish games," he said.
