If I Could Bowl to AB de Villiers, I Could Bowl to Anyone: Junior Dala

The young South Africa pacer Junior Dala, who made his debut for South Africa during the Twenty20 International series against India earlier this year opened about his experience bowling to Virat Kohli and Ab de Villiers and the impact of Dale Steyn.

Meanwhile, Dala ended as the joint highest wicket-taker in that series bagging seven scalps. He also impressed with his brisk pace constantly hitting the 140kph mark.

Moreover, the seamer is a regular performer in the domestic circuit for the Titans, especially in the limited-overs fold.

Dala had to wait for seven long years for his debut, however, he admits that it was a sense of relief.

“To be honest, for me personally, it was a sense of relief. It has always been a goal to play for South Africa and just getting the first one under the belt was a sense of relief and from there it was pretty much just about enjoying and my family was also there to watch me,” Dala said to Firstpost.

I bowled to batsman Virat, not the man: Dala

Talking about his experiences bowling to Virat Kohli, Dala admitted he didn’t think about Kohli’s records. Dala also admitted that he knew that if he can bowl to de Villiers, he can bowl against anyone in the contemporary cricket.

“The one thing I did say to myself was, ‘when I bowl to Virat, just play the batsman and not the man – Virat’. Fortunately, I had a lot of practice bowling to AB de Villiers in our domestic T20 so I always figured that if I could bowl to AB, I could bowl to anyone in the world. I just tried to bowl my best delivery to Virat on the day,” he added.

Talking about his inspiration, the fast bowler admitted that he has grown up seeing quality fast bowlers. However, Dala admitted that he enjoys watching Morne Morkel, who is also his role model.

Try and enter the batsman’s mind

Dala revealed de Villiers has helped him a lot during the Ram Slam campaign for the Titans. De Villiers has also helped him to get into the batsman’s mind.

“The one thing that as a bowler you never really think of is that we never really try to enter the batter’s mind. So, during our whole Ram Slam campaign, that was something AB was trying to ingrain in both myself and Ngidi. He said every time before you deliver the ball, just think what the batsman is trying to think with a certain field so always go into the batter’s mind before you make up your mind on what delivery to bowl. And that has worked. That’s something I tried to use with the Proteas,” Dala mentioned.

The 28-year-old Dala also talked highly of Dale Steyn, who has time and again helped him with valuable advice.

He also added that he learned to be aggressive from the experienced fast bowler.

Meanwhile, Junior Dala is currently playing first-class back in South Africa for the Titans.

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