A flying start by Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons set the match up in Mumbai Indians’ favour in the first Qualifier of Pepsi IPL 2015. The 90-run opening stand gave the Rohit Sharma-led side the platform required to beat the Chennai Super Kings in the all important game. Speaking to iplt20.com after the convincing win over CSK at the Wankhede Stadium, Patel said the side rode on the momentum as they started getting wins under the belt. Having a played a key role in setting the momentum for the side, the opener also spoke about his contribution to the team and batting with Lendl Simmons. Excerpts from the interview: MI has reached the finals playing a series of must-win matches. Getting used to playing under pressure?

We knew that we have to win all the games. We were not taking the pressure of having to win nine matches, we were just taking it one game at a time and that’s how we planned. We kept ticking the boxes game after game and we starting gaining momentum. We know well about this tournament; if you get on a roll you win lot of matches and we knew it (that we could make it to the final). Playing back to back matches and then taking CSK on in the qualifier, how had you prepared for the match? We don’t mind playing back to back matches when we have momentum with us. And then obviously coming to Wankhede we always knew that the crowd will be with us. We knew the conditions well and they were without Brendon McCullum and they obviously didn’t do well this season in away games. So we were just trying to do our best and win the game.

You coming into the team has helped MI have a stable opening partnership. I was getting starts in all the games. I was getting 20-30 odd runs, it was just that I had to give momentum to the side and that was exactly the role given to me. I am glad that while I was batting well I could get a couple of half-centuries and got another 40 odd as well. It’s good to give starts. I think openers in any format, if they play well they set the platform for the big-hitters that come in to bat later and I am glad that I could play a part in it.

How do you and Lendl Simmons pace the innings and chalk roles out for yourselves? It depends on the day. Some days he gets off to a start and some days I get off to a start. Whenever, whichever one of us gets off to a good start, the other tries to rotate the strike and give more strike to the person timing the ball well. And we have gelled well together. How did the pitch behave when you were batting?

I think the ball was taking a bit of carry and spun a bit as well. We knew that if we play two-three overs initially we could always capitalize. When you are set you hit boundaries in the first six overs, so we wanted to take a bit of time to get used to wicket and play our shots.

How has Ricky Ponting’s presence helped your batting? He has been a great help. I have played against him, he is always aggressive, always busy on the field. He has been the same as a coach. He always wanted us to be aggressive and always wanted us to back ourselves. And he has motivated us.

How much of a relief is it to have now gone straight to the final? More than relief we have just played to our potential. We hadn’t played as well in the first half but after that we have played to our potential and won games.

What was it that finally worked for MI? There is no set way that says that if you do thing this way it would win games. It is about making sure that you plan properly and execute it. We did our planning well and executed it brilliantly.

Having been a top-order batsman across formats, how do you look to pace the innings in a T20 match? The first six overs are important. Once you get through that you make sure that you keep rotating and try and play 10-12 overs. If an opener bats deep he always gets big runs and if you look at the stats whenever an opener has batted deep the team has got bigger scores. How do you decide whether to go all out in the first six overs or stabilize and build an innings? It’s not about going big and trying to get 80-90 runs on a day; you don’t get that many too often. What we try and do is just try and get 40-50 runs in first six overs without losing wickets; that means we have set a good pace and capitalise on it. Going into the final, what will MI look to do? Just stay calm. We believe that big matches and pressure situations get the best out of us and hence we will try and stay calm.