“We bowled fantastically well,” said Dale Steyn, not long after he’d made short work of Pune Warriors India (PWI), in tandem with Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma on Friday night. “This is a good sign for a new team/franchise. The team played as if it had been together for two or three years,” he said.
In an indication of things to come, he said, “If we are able to bowl teams out as we did today, we can win games. Our bowling is a lot better from last year and — Thisara Perera has replaced Daniel Christian well.”
“The pitch was bowler friendly with tennis ball bounce,” observed the South African speedster. Asked if familiarity with this strip had given him an edge, Steyn said, “The pitch has behaved differently at different times, occasionally favouring the batsmen.”
On defending a small total, he said the Sunrisers had posted 20 runs short but they fought well to defend it. Referring to the tie-up with Ishant, he said they were able to build up pressure on the batsmen into giving away their wickets. “We stopped the flow of runs,” he noted.
On gearing up to tackle Chris Gayle, Steyn said, “Gayle’s a free flowing batsman,” and suggested reining in the Caribbean cavalier by restricting his boundaries.
Earlier, Rahul Sharma said PWI’s batting hadn’t clicked. “These things happen in T20 games. Catching in the circle could have been better,” he pointed out.
“It’s not difficult to bounce back and we wish to improve for the coming matches,” the leg-spinner hoped.