Perseverance is a difficult art to pursue. Day in and day out your patience is tested and your will is challenged. Those who dodge every hurdle that comes their way and carry on on the path of perseverance are the real fighters. Ashish Nehra is one. At the age of 35, he continues to push the limits and comes up with a brilliant performance every now and then. His spell of 3 for 25 in CSK’s opening match of Pepsi IPL 2015, against Delhi Daredevils was one such stroke of brilliance. Defending a modest 150, Nehra, the senior-most bowler in the team, led by example with his water-tight opening spell of three overs in which he picked up as many wickets. That was the spell that made the difference as CSK helped themselves to two valuable points by the narrowest of margins – one run. Nehra spoke to iplt20.com about the thrilling game as he beamed on winning the Man of the Match award. A perfect start for you? It was a perfect start not only for me but for the team as well. We won by one run. Had we lost and I got the Man of the Match, I would have been disappointed. Winning makes it special. How confident was the team of defending 150 runs? These totals of 140-160 are always tricky to chase. These are the games that get close in the end about 70-80 per cent of times. If you bowl well, you can really take it till the end. We did that today and kept our nerves in the end. Do you think the relaid wicket here has maintained its characteristics? This is a great T20 wicket and I am sure it will get better and better for batting as the tournament progresses. This is an amazing ground and it was a good T20 game. Is it fair to say that when bowling in T20, sometimes, defence is the best form of attack? Not for me. I have been someone who always looks to attack. When you’re defending a total of 150, you have to pick wickets upfront and that’s what we looked to do today. We kept it tight and got wickets. With yourself, Mohit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey and Irfan Pathan, CSK has a solid Indian pace attack. Does that please you? It was important for us to have good Indian fast bowlers. All our foreign players are incredible and outstanding batsmen. We have Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo (as our overseas batsmen). These guys complemented by Indian bowlers gives the team very good balance. Since the last IPL Mohit has gained a lot of international experience – with tours to England and Australia, and playing in the World Cup. Have you seen any growth or improvement in him this year? I have seen a lot of improvement in Mohit. He has been playing non-stop cricket after the CLT20 and his length has improved. The most important thing is that his confidence level has risen to a great extent. He is more aware of his game now and has clear plans. He is an amazing fielder too and that makes him a great asset to have in a team.