Chennai Super Kings' bowling coach Eric Simons admitted that his team had to improve their batting accuracy after being eliminated from the playoffs by the Punjab Kings. "We have been good at taking wickets, but as a team in our batting, there are a few areas where we need to find and to be more accurate around and what we need to do," Simons said. "It's all about being more accurate."
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00There are a few things. I think it's been quite well documented that there was a bit of an action change.
00:07But I think he's pretty much back to where he was, just in terms of the height of his arm on a reasonably consistent basis.
00:14I'm not sure that he's less accurate. I think Batson are playing him a lot better.
00:19We can certainly see a trend in the way that Batson are playing against him, particularly against Mumbai the other day.
00:24The technique that they're using, they understand what his plans are, what he does.
00:27So the evolution might just be what's next for him, tactically, as to what he needs to do to keep evolving.
00:35Batsmen need to keep evolving. Bowlers need to keep evolving.
00:38So again, tonight, his channels are quite good. His lines are quite good.
00:41Obviously, he's got his lengths. He'd prefer a fuller length.
00:43But the batsmen are treating him differently this year.
00:47So it's about the evolution of him.
00:49But other than his accuracy, if you check his accuracy, it's not a reflection of maybe the runs that are scored.
00:57Also, as a bowling unit, how bad do you think that Chaneid have done differently this season?
01:03At various parties, they have struggled, be it in the power playovers or even with the spinners.
01:08Can you just talk about where they've done better players in the next year?
01:13Yeah, I mean, we've actually, we've been reasonably happy with, you know, with the way the tournament's gone.
01:20We haven't, we've had one or two power plays that have, we've taken some punishment.
01:25Other than that, we've been reasonably good taking wickets.
01:27Khalil in particular has been tremendous. I mean, his dot balls, his wickets, that he does bowl.
01:32That's been an important aspect.
01:33I think the last two matches here with Dew has been really tough, particularly when you've got two important spinners in your side.
01:41The ball doesn't grip quite as much. It's difficult to hold the ball, so that does make it tough.
01:46I mean, you know, I think as a team throughout batting and bowling, there are little areas we want to try and find to be more accurate around what we want to do.
01:53But as a unit, it's, you know, the guys have pretty much played their job.
01:59It's a lot about being more accurate with whatever you want to do, whatever your tactics are.
02:03So we always try to be that little more accurate, but it's about winning those big overs.
02:08Every now and then you're sitting up there and going, if you have a really tight over here, the game changes.
02:14And sometimes you get away in the last ball, the second last ball, and understanding sometimes how to come out of an over.
02:19So I think tactically smarter in key moments is probably some of the growth areas that we need to always work on.
02:27Hi, Coach. Going back to Antisha, I believe the action change sort of happened during the SA training with Joe Borg,
02:34and you've said that he's got back to the level where he was.
02:37So sort of doing these technical treats for someone who's so unique to him, so how challenging is it for you and him as well?
02:43Because given his actions, it's so unique, right?
02:45Yeah, it's, you know, I'm a coach that believes in a bowler or cricketer, in fact, but a bowler, you know, working his own.
02:55It's a feel thing more than a conversation that we need to have.
02:59So we do a lot of drill work.
03:00I catch the ball from him into the glove to just help him with his accuracy.
03:05But from there, other than that, it's checking your scene position, whether it's the right angles that he's usually good at, watching a lot of footage and making sure that he's doing the things that he was doing in the past.
03:17But it's, it's about, it's a feel thing for him.
03:21He needs to, he needs to just find that confidence and the feel from it as much more than the conversation around his technique that what he has to do.
03:29But we feel he's pretty much back there and, you know, he's balled a lot more off-pace balls this, this, this, this tournament and off-pace the ball, the arm is a bit higher.
03:37But, um, other than that, he's, he's pretty much where he used to be.
03:41I mean, uh, I mean, uh, you see, the way I had him from some round of playing, I mean, uh, stripping out and scoring runs, uh, our ballers were feeding them.
03:51We couldn't see why it's in the past, even why it's at produce wickets, uh, when Dunia's asked him, you know, uh, Ashwin and Kaur, the baller, why it's at produce wickets, uh, they didn't try, you know, you feel the baller didn't try enough?
04:03In the power play?
04:04Yeah.
04:04I mean, you know, when you've got two batsmen that come at you like that and you go for just 50-odd, you haven't done a very bad job.
04:11We, we, we spend a lot of time looking at batsmen's techniques when we build, when we come to a strategy around how to ball to them.
04:18Um, and there's, there's not always one way.
04:20There's, there are many ways.
04:21So, so, you know, other than a few balls that got away, I think we, we were looking at sub 50, which I think against an aggressive opposition like they are in the power play, you've probably done quite a good job.
04:32Um, so, um, you know, we, when, when I look at the, the tactics they want to do and the execution of what we did, the field placing, the movement of the field, the way that, uh, the little things that we did, I think did pretty smartly.
04:43So, as I said, you know, in a, in a tournament where we've seen 70 plus, um, but for the, you know, one or two shots at the back end, we're looking at a sub 50 power play.
04:52I wasn't too upset with what they were doing.