Individual performances win games: Dale Steyn

24th May 2008

Dale Steyn is South Africa's answer to an opening fast bowler. He seems to show shades of Shaun Pollock with his consistency and a hint of Allan Donald with his raw pace.

His inaugural DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) stint with the Bangalore Royal Challengers has not been successful with his team garnering just 6 points from 12 games.

Although they have been relegated from the knockout stages of the IPL, Steyn talks highly about the tournament gone by and is optimistic for the future of the League.

Steyn started off by saying that it is important for his side to win their remaining three games of the tournament as the victories will hold them in good stead for the second year of the IPL.

He also dismissed claims that his team is one of the weaker teams in the tournament saying that they have a good side and are "definitely not a walkover".

The South African believes their 9 losses in the tournament were due to a lack of individual performances. He emphasised that fact by saying, "To succeed, you have to find players with individual performances. We've seen guys so far who have done well individually, their teams have ended up winning. Unfortunately in our team, we don't have someone like that."

He also said that they missed New Zealander Ross Taylor as he had the ability to win matches single-handedly. But the second fastest bowler in the world also expressed his concern that some experienced names in the side haven't fired in the tournament which has cost Bangalore crucial games.

"It just takes one individual moment of brilliance to win a game," said the pacer.

Steyn added that he is seeking to improve his own bowling with every game and is getting a lot of encouragement from team coach Venkatesh Prasad in that regard.

The fastest South African bowler to take 100 wickets in Test matches said that the dressing room atmosphere is also great in the Bangalore franchise and especially praised his teammates Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid.

He said that he and Zaheer Khan often discuss bowling tactics where the Indian pacer teaches him a thing or two which he didn't know.

With regard to Dravid, Steyn said, "From the captaincy side of things, he sees differently from someone like Graeme Smith. It's important as I can take such information to my national colours when I'm playing for my country."

He signed off with an assurance that he will be back next year and even the year after that and said that he is looking forward to winning the next couple of games.

The Bangalore Royal Challengers next face the Deccan Chargers on May 25 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Hyderabad.