Punjab Kings sealed a nervy five-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday.
Having scored 86 off 56 balls at a strike-rate of 153 plus, Dhawan seemed happy with his batting. His match-winning knock came on the back of a 29-ball 40 he hit in their season-opening win against Kolkata Knight Riders in Mohali.
Dhawan said that he has made a conscious effort to improve his strike rate, especially in the middle-overs. He took his time before he changed gears, attacking the Rajasthan Royals spinners in the middle-overs.
"These two matches, we've gotten a great start playing well and I'm doing my best to increase my strike rate. The wicket brings momentum back quickly. This year we have a deep batting line-up so we keep momentum going hitting boundaries and put pressure on the other team."
AB de Villiers was in awe of Shikhar Dhawan's refreshing batting performance against Rajasthan Royals. "To be honest, I haven't seen him play like that." Perhaps it was Dhawan's reverse six off Jason Holder in the 18th over that made AB perk up like that.”
"It started when the spinners came on in the middle-overs. The spinners took a pounding tonight. Look at him moving around, I have never seen him playing like this. It is refreshing and I think he has got a lot of runs in him this season," De Villiers added.
Dhawan, who has been marshalling the Punjab Kings unit really well, did confess that he was nervous when Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel took the game to the wire.
"There were some nervous moments but I was keeping my calm and the same with the bowlers. There was a lot of dew. The bowlers did a great job. I was happy with the score we put up. They bowled well and bowled very good yorkers," he praised Sam Curran's death bowling.
Getting early wickets in Powerplay also helped, the skipper said.
"Scoring 197 and then my bowlers coming and getting early wickets and keeping the pressure on and then Nathan came on and got wickets. We never let the game get out of our hands. There were some moments that were hard but I think it was a great team effort."
