Chennai, May 11: He has been the Super Kings’ lucky mascot. Call it coincidence but Chennai have not lost a single match Palani Amarnath has played. He has managed to hold his own against the other medium pacers in the side.

Barring the away game against Delhi, Amarnath has picked wickets at crucial junctures in every other match that paved the way for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men to script wins. For a simple lad the IPL was a colossal stage. "I could not understand what was going on. It was difficult to run in and bowl in front of such huge crowds. Dhoni kept telling me to just enjoy my cricket and do what I can to the best of my ability and that helped to think straight," says Amarnath.

Amarnath has gone for runs, but that is only to be expected of someone who lacks air speed. "It is easy to be critical of the bowlers in this format. Amarnath has kept picking wickets and that of the better batsmen and his contribution is no less than that of the others in the side," says V.B. Chandrasekar.

If Amarnath can bring down the number of bad balls he will be a bigger threat along with Manpreet Gony and L. Balaji.