Smith happy with the progress he’s made

Unlike David Warner who set the IPL-12 afire right from the first game, his Aussie compatriot Steve Smith took a while to get into the groove.

Coming on the back of an elbow surgery, the former Australian captain appeared rusty and obviously not 100 per cent fitness-wise. But slowly and surely, he seems to be getting into his rhythm. Set to play his last match for Rajasthan Royals, against Royal Challengers Bangalore here, on Tuesday before he joins Australia’s World Cup squad, Smith said he was happy with the progress he has made.

“I think I have probably taken a little while to sort of warm into things again,” he said on Monday. “The start of the tournament did not go as well as I would have liked personally or collectively as a group. But I think the more I have padded up the better I have felt as the tournament has gone on. I’ve been able to contribute to a couple of wins probably in the last two matches. Felt very good.

“For us, collectively as a group now, we have won three out of the last four and it is very important for us to win the last two games to give ourselves a chance to qualify. You know we can’t think about other results, all we can focus is on how we are playing and hopefully the boys can get over the line tomorrow night and then go and win in Delhi as well and give ourselves a chance to qualify,” he elaborated.

Smith had a scare when he landed hard on his operated elbow after taking the catch of Warner against Sunrisers Hyderabad the other night, but right-hander said it was holding up well.

“All good. Just landed on it quite heavily. More heavily than I had landed on it previously. Obviously from surgery, I have still got some scar tissue and stuff in there and just the impact of the landing affected it a little bit but there is nothing wrong with it, all good. I have been batting since I have been here, haven’t I? So that’s been no problem. And I am throwing at probably 70 or 80%. So, a couple of weeks and should be back to throwing at 100%.”