'It has helped' - Rassie van der Dussen credits IPL for South Africa's historic win in 1st T20I

South Africa chased down a record-breaking 212 in the 1st T20I in front of a jam-packed Delhi crowd at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday, 9th June. The duo of David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen were the heroes for South Africa on a humid night as they stitched together an epic unbeaten 131-run partnership, to script a famous win for the Proteas. Van der Dussen has credited the IPL for his fantastic knock on the night.

The South African was part of the Rajasthan Royals setup but only featured in three games for the runners-up of IPL 2022. Even with his limited game time, the right-handed batter has pointed out that the experience of playing in the IPL made him accustomed to the heat and pitches, which enabled him to cope better against the Indian bowlers in the series opener.

Notably, his teammates, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock, and Anrich Nortje were all part of the IPL 2022 and performed brilliantly throughout the tournament. Their excellent form ahead of the five-match T20I series has bode well for the South African team.

“Definitely (IPL has helped). I watched a lot of IPL games and did not get much of an opportunity to play, but I had a pretty good idea of what their bowlers would do and the conditions. Indian conditions are different from what we have in South Africa. I spent two months here, been in these conditions, been in the heat, so had acclimatized to that, and that goes for everyone,” van der Dussen said at the post-match press conference.

You know that at some stage he is going to miss: Dussen comments on Harshal Patel’s slower ball

Notably, India were in a commanding position at one point in time with Van der Dussen struggling at 29 off 30 balls. But after the hard-hitting batter was dropped by Shreyas Iyer on the same score, he went on to smack 45 off the next 15 balls. He was quite severe on the fast bowlers, especially Harshal Patel, who is the death overs expert in this fresh-look Indian side.

“(He’s) got such a good slower ball. I think the end he bowled from played into my hands because of the short boundary. It’s a very tough ball to hit. He gets a lot of energy in it, gets a lot of dip on it, but again he’s only human. You know that at some stage he is going to miss. As a batter you’ve just got to stay strong and stay patient over those balls that he bowls so well,” the South African batter added.