After Sunrisers Hyderabad's 22-run win over Pune Warriors India in the Indian Premier League (IPL-VI) here on Friday, Dale Steyn said his team fought well to begin the campaign on a winning note.
Steyn, who claimed three wickets for 11 runs in 3.5 overs, said Sunrisers bowled and batted well, and assessed the conditions pretty well.
Dale Steyn. File Pic
ADVERTISEMENT
“It was nice one to get off the mark. We fought well tonight, which is a good sign for a new team. New franchise is normally about discovering yourself but we played like a team that had been together for two years with the new coach and everything. It was fantastic,” the South African said.
On Sunrisers scoring 126 after being put into bat by Pune Warriors, the fast bowler said they were probably 20 runs short. “But I think we bowled consistently well to get ourselves back into the game. At one stage we were probably looking at six or 6.5 runs in an over with, may be, two big overs getting us to 150. Even 140 plus would have been a great score on this wicket. To defend 126 it was good.”
Steyn, one of the best bowlers in the world, said it was more a bowler friendly wicket. “It was not a free flowing wicket. You could not quite just go out there and play shots. The ball was not quite getting on to the bat.u00a0“It had a bit of the tennis ball bounce. It wasn’t the best wicket that we had in Hyderabad.
Good hard fighting game tonight. It was well fought.” The South African said he, along with Ishant Sharma, built pressure where they can get wickets. “We did that fantastically well tonight. We bowled in great areas.”
Steyn believes Sunrisers will do well this season if it bowls well.u00a0“If we bowl well, we are going to do well this season. Batsmen always look to score 140, 150 and 160 whatever it is but if you can bowl teams out in 20 overs, you are going to win lot of games,” he added.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
