The most economical of Kings XI Punjab’s bowlers, Axar Patel, played a crucial role in restricting the Rising Pune Supergiant to a modest total. The left-arm spinner ended the late flourishing partnership between Ben Stokes and Manoj Tiwary by claiming the former, and then returned to bat at No 4 (24 off 22). His all-round contribution helped the team get off to a winning start in VIVO IPL 2017.

Speaking to iplt20.com later, Axar elaborated on the plans his team had for the Steven Smith-led team who had come to Indore on the back of a win. Excerpts: Good to get off to a winning start? Obviously. A winning start was important for us especially given the way the last two seasons had ended. I think it was a big thing for us to gain the confidence back. The way the combination of bowlers and batsmen clicked today has boosted the confidence. It feels good to get a winning start to the tournament. Maxwell had spoken about having confidence in bowlers and having plans for the opposition. Can you now elaborate on that? The bowlers had done really well in the two practice games. The wicket was a bit flat, but the bowlers bowled to a plan. Maxwell was impressed with the execution of the plans and that gave him the confidence. What the bowlers have been able to accomplish in this match has proved his confidence in the bowlers right. What were the plans for the Rising Pune Supergiant batting line-up with the likes of Steven Smith and MS Dhoni in it? The plan was that Sandeep Sharma will try to bowl dot balls (and contain the batsmen upfront). Our plan too was not to get too much into the attacking mode but to stick to our plans - bowl as many dot balls as we can. That was what we were doing, which got us the wickets. The pressure that built up due to the dot balls helped and when that happened then we tried to attack. What was your plan for breaking the flourishing partnership between Ben Stokes and Manoj Tiwary? I was standing at deep mid-wicket and wondering if I would get an over. Because T Natarajan too had an over left, I was feeling that they will go for the pace bowler. But the captain showed confidence in me (and handed me the ball). My plan was to confuse the batsman and not just bowl at him at the same speed or in the same spot; so I bowled one on the pads and one on the off-stump. I executed what I had planned and got the wicket (of Stokes). It worked (helped us) because there were still couple of overs left and they couldn’t go as far as they would have otherwise. What was the reason behind your promotion to No. 4 in today’s match? They had two leg-spinners, so Viru paaji (Virender Sehwag) said that an Indian batsman going in to bat would be good because they can read spinners well. (Also) I am left-handed and there were two leg-spinners, so I was promoted up the order. After undergoing injury rehabilitation, you played a few domestic one-day matches before the IPL. How did you prepare for the tournament? Honestly, I had it at the back of my mind that I am coming back and have to perform on a big platform like this. The confidence was a little low .... 80-90 percent, but the way the first game has turned out now my confidence is now at a hundred percent.