Mumbai Indians are all set to play against Delhi Capitals in the first Qualifier at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday.

Both the teams have constituted the top two of the points table. However, MI have managed to defeat DC on both occasions this season.

Ahead of the crucial encounter, Shane Bond spoke to the media at the pre-match press conference. The MI bowling coach shared his thoughts on resting Bumrah and Boult for the previous game, preparations for the playoffs, and the recipe behind MI’s success in the past.

How do you read yesterday’s game against SRH?

Bond: "We didn’t play well but it was one of those situations where we knew we had qualified. We weren’t as accurate as we needed to be but at the end of the day, it had no impact on the tournament. So, I think everybody is excited about what awaits us with the challenge against Delhi. We just very quickly need to park that game and look forward to the qualifying round."

Do you think it was a big price to pay, resting Jasprit and Trent considering our bowlers couldn’t take a single wicket?

Bond: "No, you’ve to give credit to SRH. They were obviously up for the game. It was a must-win for them and they played beautifully, but you always have to take a longer-term view. In this tournament as well, we have had a busy schedule with Trent and Jasprit being outstanding in the way that they have played. We knew that not only with the back-to-back fixtures but also the travel back and forth from Dubai and Sharjah, it was an opportunity for us to give those guys a break and freshen up, knowing that we‘ve got at least two games coming up, possibly three. I think both boys enjoyed the rest. We now have a bowling squad, particularly the fast bowlers who are all ready to play so if we pick up an injury, we know everybody has had game time as well. It puts us in a really good position."

We know that this match was not so relevant in terms of the Mumbai Indians aspect considering we made the playoffs but as a cricketer how difficult is it to forget such a loss and move on?

Bond: "It’s the nature of the tournament, the game has come thick and fast. We have got an experienced bunch of very rare players. We had a run in this tournament where we won five in a row and it’s very rare in this tournament because of the quality that you’re winning game after game. I think Kings (King’s XI Punjab) did it a little bit, Chennai at the back end. So, you’re going to drop and lose games. That’s what you’ve got to do, you have to take out the review of it and then you’ve just got to park it and get on with the next game. Look, we have played brilliantly all season. We have been in SRH’s position and lost in 2016 and 2018. We know the stress of having to win those games when the playoff race is tight. Last year and this year, we have played beautifully. We have qualified well in advance which just always takes the pressure off. So to be in a position to be able to rest players is a real bonus for us. We know that if we turn up with the attitude and the talent and quality we have got and execute the game plan, we are always very tough to beat. So I go into this game completely confident that we are going to win it."

Was it scary to see that only twice in this tournament that the Mumbai Indians tailenders have been tested, they’re not coming up for batting?

Bond: "I don’t think Jasprit Bumrah batted last year. You don’t want to see your tailenders batting because if they aren’t batting, your top order is scoring runs and they are scoring big runs. The bonus from a batting point of view is that Kieron Pollard got to face 20 balls and whacked it, so that puts him in great shape for the finals because he hasn’t had too much batting. We have got as good a batting lineup as anyone in the tournament. I think our bowling lineup is also as good as anyone in the tournament. We are a team that nobody wants to play because they know if we play well, we can do some damage. We move into the finals now. We’ve got a whole lot of players who have experience winning the tournament, they know how to win. We have won tight games so we go with that behind us and that makes a huge difference."

During the tournament, Rohit and some of the MI Players have said that the team has been able to adapt very well in UAE, can you explain how exactly the bowlers did that on the pitch in UAE?

Bond: "Look, there have been different conditions here. I think you just don’t summarise it as UAE you have got Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. All play differently and they’re different dimensions. There have been different levels of dew through the backend of this tournament as well so the ability to adjust to those conditions. It’s been easy for us in Abu Dhabi because it’s been our home ground. We have played eight games and played well here. To be fair, the conditions have been similar to Wankhede. It has good pace and bounce and the boys have exploited that well. It was nice to play well in Dubai particularly against Delhi, for the last game. We had a couple of losses there so to go there and touch them up in the last game was a good performance for us and will take a lot of confidence, going back to playing the same opposition on the same ground. Nothing changes for us, we know how we wanna play. We know what our gameplans are. If we go out and do those things, then we are successful more times than we are not. We’ve talked about just sticking to those processes and being very clear about what we want to do. Doing the little things well and if we do that, they’re always in contest. We have done that for the majority of the tournament. We have won nine games, we have tied two, so to do that against quality oppositions in this tournament is a hell of a good effort."

Give us your views in terms of how Dubai instead of Abu Dhabi impacts your basics?

Bond: "It doesn’t really. At the end of the day, the basics stay the same plus we want to use our short ball aggressively. We’ve got to hit the yorkers and the wide lines. We are going to use the slower balls. We’ve got to come in off the boundary to stop running twos, those things don’t change from game-to-game. The only thing that will change a little bit is can you use the slower ball more. Then we have our plans clear against Delhi that we executed brilliantly in the last game. Once we get through Delhi and whoever opposition we face in the final, we move to the same. We’re very specific about how we want to attack each team and if we do that and execute that thing, we’re successful. We will try to do the same thing and have done the same things. That’s why that continuity in selection, in our planning of what we do is a huge part of why we’re very successful. I think we take that, those years of success with us through the tournament, and hopefully, we can play the same things and have the same result."

So coming back to the spinners’ point of view, how crucial will it be for the spinners to contain the explosive DC batting lineup?

Bond: "I think our spinners match-up well. We match-up well with this team. We have got three outstanding spinners. We played him (Jayant) in the game. I don’t know what our team is going to be for this one. The strength of our team is we’ve got five international bowlers to complement each other, to do different things. We have two guys who are near the top of Purple Cap but that has never really bothered us or the boys in the team. It’s just a byproduct of the bowling group doing a great job. We always want to just bowl as a group, bowl for each other, pass the baton if we bowl tightly. Someone in our group with the quality we’ve got is going to pick up wickets. So we will work diligently against Delhi to put the right bowler against the right batsman, to make them work as hard as they possibly can for their runs and if we do that, we know someone in our bowling group is going to get a whole lot of wickets. Doesn’t matter who it is as long as we score more runs and then we get the win, the individual accolades and stuff, that doesn’t matter to us."

Of the five occasions that MI has made it to the finals, they have won four titles. What is the recipe behind the team’s success?

Bond: "The planning and stuff that we’ve talked about, so you often don’t see it. The exciting thing and fun part for me as a coach is that you do the planning behind the scenes and that comes off. It doesn’t come off all the time but you get the results. You get the batsman out certain ways how you want to get him out, it’s fun and builds confidence in the team with the stuff that we’ve been doing. Then you’ve got Pollard, Rohit and the Pandya brothers now who have had that success through. You have got guys who know how to win. They know the intensity of the finals, the pressure of the finals. They have played well in those finals and had success in most of the finals. So if you take that into the finals against teams who haven’t had that success and are nervous, it goes to your advantage. So I think we are a team that knows how to win. We’ve got some big-game players in our team. We still have to play well because who we’re going to play have earned their spots in the playoffs and they’re outstanding teams. I feel the confidence within this group and I think everyone’s excited about tomorrow."