The Delhi Daredevils became the second team in as many days to defend a target in VIVO IPL 2016 just as successful chases were emerging as a trend in the ongoing tournament. Leading the attack, Zaheer Khan helped the hosts to a scintillating 10-run win against the Mumbai Indians at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi to jump to the second position in the points table. With a competitive 164 runs to defend, Zaheer marshalled his troops astutely even to ensure DD their third win of the season. The left-arm pacer bowled one-over spells and made calculated bowling changes that kept the opposition in check. Having brought in Imran Tahir for the game he bowled the leg-spin duo - the South African spinner and Amit Mishra - from both ends to curb the MI batsmen through the middle overs. And later, with 32 required of 12 balls, Zaheer bowled the penultimate over himself in which he accounted for Kieron Pollard and conceded only 11 runs. With MI requiring 21 off the last over Zaheer handed the ball to Chris Morris with Rohit and Hardik Pandya attempting to take MI over the line. Speaking about the game plan and the way the bowling resources were utilised, Morris explained, “If it was left to me I would have bowled my third over at Pollard as soon as he came in (the 15th over with MI on 110 for four), but Zak (Zaheer Khan) being the genius that he is, decided that he will save me for the end with himself. A genius move by the man; it came off today, it could have backfired horribly. But he has played so many games of cricket and taken so many wickets in his career for a reason. He is very experienced and I think he was brilliant today.” Discussing his last over, which saw Rohit being run out and Harbhajan Singh departing for naught, Morris said “When he had finished the second last-over, Zak came to me and said, ‘is that enough? (20 to defend)’; and I said ‘it’s never enough Zak’.” “You have to stay as calm as possible. The guys that panic at the death are usually the ones that lose out. It was unfortunate the way Rohit got out, but that is the game. For me it was about sticking to my plans and stick to my guns,” he elaborated. Further, while reflecting on defending a total, Morris said, “I think we had quite a good score on quite a good wicket. It was quite slow and our batters did beautifully and set a good platform for us. While defending you obviously need (to take) wickets. The guys bowled beautifully and controlled things (the flow of runs). Mishy (Amit Mishra) and Immy (Imran Tahir) bowled beautifully. The thing is to stay calm and stay in the game as long as we can and defend as well as we can. Luckily it was our game today.” Asked about their plans for Rohit and Pollard, who can take the game away from the opposition on their day, Morris said, “I was lucky to play against Polly (Pollard) in the RamSlam (T20 tournament) in South Africa. So I like to think I am going over him but he has smashed me enough in the past. So (the plan was to) keep it simple, back my yorkers and back my skill. Some other time you could bowl a full toss and get hit for sixes in a row. But like I said, fortunately it worked for me today.” Speaking about his plans for bowling in the all important death overs, the bowler said, “I try and stay calm, believe in what I do and bowl my yorkers as fast as I can. So there might be simple things, but for me I am here to bowl yorkers and bowl fast. That’s basically the plan and luckily today for me it counted for me.” Now that two teams have defended competitive totals, when asked if one can still talk about the pattern of chases being more successful in the tournament or if one can foresee a shift in the trend, Morris remarked, “Cricket is an unpredictable game. And that’s why we love playing it. I think we just stuck to our guns nicely tonight. It could have gone another way (another time) as simple as that - Pollard could have smashed it out of the park there on another day, and I could have had 15 to defend in the last over. (There are) Small things in the game that can change the day. So we’ll enjoy tonight and then we start tomorrow again.” Speaking about his journey with the IPL over the past few years, Morris said, “The atmosphere always surprises you when you get there. It takes a couple of days to adjust but I love to come to India and love playing cricket here. The atmosphere is incredible (and) the place is incredible. It gets louder (in jest). Maybe I am getting older (but) I am very happy to be performing for my team and glad to be here.”