You never stop learning: Ben Hilfenhaus

Captain MS Dhoni’s bowlers were in top form. While India pacer Mohit Sharma took four wickets, Australian fast bowler Ben Hilfenhaus picked up two wickets.

Chennai Super Kings were simply ruthless in their thumping seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians on Thursday.

Captain MS Dhoni’s bowlers were in top form. While India pacer Mohit Sharma took four wickets, Australian fast bowler Ben Hilfenhaus picked up two wickets.

“It was a great performance from the boys tonight. It is nice to be on a roll in T20 cricket and it is good to be on that roll at the moment. Hopefully we can just continue that for the rest of the tournament,” Hilfenhaus told IPL website after the match.

Hilfenhaus, however, said he still has not found his top form. “I have not been bad at times I would say. There are certain things that I feel I need to improve at. It gets tough to spend time in the nets when you have such a hectic schedule but hopefully we can keep improving in those couple of days between matches,” he said.

On Thursday, Hilfenhaus dismissed compatriot and his former Chennai teammate Michael Hussey. “It is always nice to get Hussey’s wicket. He is such a dangerous player and to pick him cheaply like we did set the ball rolling for us. It is nice to starve him for runs. I just tried to stay away from his strengths and got lucky at the end of the day. He is such a good player. In T20 cricket all you can do is control the areas where you want to bowl or else the batsmen will charge you or slog you and you will go for runs.”

The Australian fast bowler says he is more than happy to share his experiences with young Chennai bowlers like Ishwar Pandey and Mohit. “I wouldn’t say I have been given the role, but I am definitely there to help them out and help them grow as fast bowlers. They both are developing really well and they have stood up in the first initial days of the tournament and done well. These are exciting times for Chennai Super Kings.”

Cricket, Hilfenhaus says, is a never-ending learning process. “In this game you are always learning. I am still trying to learn things and you never know everything about this game. Sometimes by actually thinking about their game or my game I learn in the process. Hopefully I continue to keep improving and go from there.”

On Thursday night against the defending champions Mumbai Indians, Hilfenhaus was a bit expensive even though he got two wickets.

“I have always tried to be as economical as possible. I leaked too many runs tonight but you know that’s T20 cricket. You bowl well and go for a few some days and you bowl poorly and don’t go for as many. The idea is to keep controlling every ball you bowl and hope that you bowl a dot.”