Great quotes from our wonderful world of cricket (21 May 2018).
How to bowl to AB?
Andrew Tye of the Kings XI Punjab has picked up three four-wicket hauls in IPL 2018 to head the bowling charts with 24 wickets in 13 matches, but it wasn’t enough to get his team into the playoffs (Cricinfo).
“Being able to adapt and read batsmen is the key. From whatever chats I have had with AB [de Villiers], he reacts and reads the mind of the bowlers. And that’s probably the reason why he succeeds in T20 cricket. The same way the bowlers need to figure out what the batsmen are trying to do. I am always someone looking to develop something new or something different – whether different methods of training, something in the run-ups, different varieties.” – Andrew Tye.
Lungi’s great bowling
Man of the Match in the final round-robin match of IPL 2018, Chennai Super Kings’ Lungi Ngidi was eager to roll the pitch up and take it away with him (Cricinfo).
“A very good day out. Really didn’t expect it to go that well, but I’ll take it. Didn’t expect this track. Usually they say the subcontinent is slow and low, but after seeing Chahar, I was grinning.” – Lungi Ngidi.
Beefy backs 100 balls
Sir Ian Botham has backed the ECB’s 100-ball plan for putting a spring in cricket’s step (Daily Mail).
“The game has to move on. I think we’re in danger of diluting the red-ball game too much and going down the one-day road, but that’s what the public wants at the moment. But we needed a competition in England to compete with the Big Bash and the IPL – everyone else has one and we’ve been slow to pick up on it.” – Sir Ian Botham.
Collingwood says ‘yes-but-wait-and-see’
Paul Collingwood is also in favour of 100 balls… but he doesn’t want to commit himself too much (Daily Mail).
‘If the T20 game was marketed well in England, I think it would bring the crowds in and bring in a new audience. But who is to say this ‘Hundred’ competition isn’t going to be bigger and better? We’ll just have to wait and see.” – Paul Collingwood.
Ponting baffled by Maxwell’s poor IPL form
Bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils had an IPL 2018 to forget, as did Glenn Maxwell – his 12 innings yielded just 169 runs (average 14). His top score was 47 and he only had two other scores above double figures (22 and 27). Ricky Ponting, head coach of Delhi Daredevils, was baffled by the poor form of their costliest buy of January’s player auction (Cricinfo).
“I wish I knew. When Glenn came back into the side he batted at No. 5, which is probably a position that he hasn’t played that much. He was coming here in good form and having played a little bit of T20 cricket. He just said he felt frustrated that he’d hadn’t been able to make an impact on the result of the game for his team. He’s an outstanding cricketer there’s no doubt about that.” – Ricky Ponting.
Managing cricketers in chaos
Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni reveals the truth about managing players in the chaos that is T20 cricket (Cricinfo).
“After the first ball is bowled, it’s only chaos. What you are trying to do is you’re trying to manage the chaos. It’s not like a script that happens. Yes, I know who are the bowlers and they will bowl at some point of time. But it does not work like that. It’s about adaptability.”
Moving up the batting order
England’s Jonny Bairstow has expressed his pride at being moved up to No 5 in the order for the Test series against Pakistan, but he believes it won’t impact on his role with the gloves (Cricinfo).
“You are going to be tired at the end of a Test match no matter what, so whether I bat at five or seven is not going to make too much difference to me. In the past, whenever a challenge has been thrown down, I like to think I’ve stepped up and risen to those challenges and taken them in my stride. I know I will relish it.” – Jonny Bairstow
Main photo: Rahul Gulati /SPORTZPICS for BCCI
