IPL 2021: Thankful to Steyn for positive words of encouragement, says MI pacer Marco Jansen

Mumbai Indians pacer Marco Jansen has thanked Dale Steyn for saying good things about him after watching him bowl in the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday.

Jansen playing his first game for Mumbai Indians returned with the figures of 2-28 from his four overs. Along the way, he also picked up key wickets of Glenn Maxwell and Shahbaz Ahmed.

After the game, Steyn had tweeted: "Well done tonight Marco Jansen! May have lost but you can be very proud."

"Obviously, I was a bit nervous but more good nerves as compared to bad nerves, I guess. The first over, not the best of starts but I am very glad that I could come back and make a good impact in the game, especially contributing for the side and getting my first wicket as well," said Jansen in a video posted on the official Twitter handle of Mumbai Indians.

"I am thankful to Steyn for watching the game and also making good comments on Twitter. I am personally not on Twitter but I am very happy that I have made a positive impact to the team," he added.

Chris Lynn also made his debut for Mumbai in the match against RCB. He played a knock of 49 runs but his debut did not get off to an ideal start as he was involved in the run-out of Rohit Sharma.

"It's great to make your debut especially for one of the proudest and most successful franchises around the world. So to put the blue cap was a very special moment and to score runs I was very happy with that. Not ideal running your skipper out in the first game but that's the way the game goes. It's obviously a proud moment but I have played a lot of cricket and I have played for a lot of teams so you do not want to get nervous," said Lynn.

AB de Villiers played a knock of 48 runs off just 27 balls with the help of four 4s and two 6s to help RCB defeat Mumbai Indians by two wickets in the tournament opener on Friday in Chennai.

( With inputs from ANI )