George Bailey believes Mitchell Johnson will bounce back from a disappointing debut performance for Kings XI Punjab in Abu Dhabi.
While his side could reflect on a job well done having successfully chased down 206 to win by six wickets against Chennai Super Kings at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Johnson was far from at his best.
The Australian paceman — so devastating against England in the recent Ashes series Down Under — saw his first over despatched for 14 and things didn’t get much better as he gave up 47 runs from his 24 balls.
He proved his side’s most expensive bowler, going at nearly 12 an over, but captain Bailey is confident he will return to his best by the time they face Rajasthan Royals in Sharjah on Sunday.
“I think Mitch just looked a little rusty today and in horse terms I think he’ll be better for the run,” the Punjab skipper said. “The challenge for Mitch is that he’s been on some great fast wickets that really suited him and not every wicket over here is going to be like that.
“But he’s still very, very quick so it was perhaps me not using him the best times as well today.”
There was also praise from the opposition, with Brendon McCullum stating that he expected Johnson to be winning matches for his side again before too long.
The Chennai batsman said: “I think we’ve seen in Test cricket the impact that he has through sheer pace and intensity and I think in T20 combination of the pitch as well as the mindset the batters have to take, he didn’t have his best day today but I’m pretty sure we’re going to see him pick up a few man of the matches in this tournament.”
McCullum, who passed 5,000 T20 runs in scoring 67 for Chennai, thought Maxwell’s knock was good enough to win any match.
“I thought Maxwell’s innings was a brilliant innings and if you play an innings like that you deserve to win,” he said.
Bailey, meanwhile, praised Maxwell’s partner Miller who made up for a slow start by pressing the accelerator once his Australian teammate had departed.
Bailey added: “In his own words he wasn’t hitting the ball as well as he would have liked at the start and the tendency can be to throw it away, but for him to fight through that and help Maxy, it was just a great partnership.”
