IPL 2021: ‘Brought tears to my eyes,’ says Dale Steyn after Shivam Mavi calls him ‘idol’

South Africa pacer Dale Steyn recently revealed that Shivam Mavi’s comments about him brought tears to his eyes. Mavi called Steyn his ‘idol’ after his match-winning spell of 4-0-13-1 against Punjab Kings on Monday.

Mavi set the tone for KKR’s victory with an excellent opening spell. He bowled a total of 15 dots in his four overs and also claimed the wicket of Chris Gayle. The other KKR bowlers did the job after that as they put more pressure on the Punjab Kings batters by picking up wickets at regular intervals.

“Ever since I began playing the sport, I used to follow Dale Steyn very closely. I used to bowl outswingers at the start and that’s why followed Steyn on how to bowl them. I follow what Bumrah and Bhuvi are doing but Steyn has also remained my idol,” Mavi had said after his brilliant spell.

Steyn was on the panel to discuss the match with ESPNcricinfo and when he was told that Mavi idolizes him, the South African pacer said that it is an ‘amazing’ feeling and it brought tears to his eyes.

“It’s amazing to be honest, almost brought tears to my eye. I never ever played this game expecting to have an impact on people at the opposite ends of the world,” Steyn said.

Steyn also said that he would love to get in touch with Mavi and would like to develop his skills further.

“I hope that he can just push on, these kinds of performances will get him into teams that he wants to play for like India and maybe play a bigger role for KKR. I’d love to get in touch with him at some point,” he said.

KKR now have two wins to their name after six games and would need to win a lot more in the remaining eight games to stay in contention for the playoff berth.