Chennai, May 28: Ravichandran Ashwin played a major role in Chennai Super Kings’ successful defence of their IPL title. He got rid of the dangerous Chris Gayle for a duck in his very first over and ended the final with figures of 3/16. The talented offie finished IPL 2011 as the fourth highest wicket-taker with 20 scalps. He spoke exclusively to www.iplt20.com after his team trounced RCB by 58 runs. On picking up Gayle’s wicket I was confident that I would get him. Most people were saying that he was going to come after me and he was going to hit me but it was part of the game. If I didn’t do well then obviously he was going to hit me. I just tried to go hard at him and got him. On his contributions to the team’s victory The team management has been very supportive. They kept faith in me and imposed a lot of leadership roles on me, which meant a lot of responsibility and leading up front. I would love to keep the role going and keep firing all the time. On being hit on the head in the earlier game against RCB Getting hit on the head was definitely painful but having said that last game as well I removed Gayle. I think getting Gayle up front is all that you need. It was crucial last time as well. On the core team being retained by CSK It was very important. We just stick together. We have great team spirit. We have a great set of Indian players and it is a very important thing to take note of for any franchise. On CSK’s unbeaten record at home I don’t think it would have mattered today much. We outplayed them in every department of the game. We out-batted them, We fielded well and bowled brilliantly. People say we really do well at home but we smacked them in Mumbai and that was a big win. On Murali Vijay’s knock Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Vijay’s knock was a splendid one. I told him he would get a fifty today and he got 95. Poor fellow he missed out on a hundred. On CSK prospects in CLT20 Hopefully, we will be playing mostly at home in this year’s CLT20. That is a big advantage. But having said that, defending the title is not a huge pressure because we know T20 is not about consistency. We are just going to enjoy our game and express ourselves.