Pat Cummins Reveals Barrage of Bouncers Won't Stop Anytime Soon
Updated - 09 Jan 2019, 06:56 PM
There were around 43,846 spectators present during the 2nd day of the 5th, and the final Ashes Test played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and the full attendance on social media cried out Aussie paceman Pat Cummins to continue dishing in the short pitch deliveries which they thought couldn’t be defended by Stuart Broad’s defense. Broad defied the barrage of short deliveries for a long time and struck a few lusty, but that didn’t stop Cummins to dish out the short deliveries on a consistent basis.
However, Cummins himself admitted after the day’s play that the thoughts of full bowling length never crossed his mind as he happily followed the order of his skipper Steve Smith and kept digging it believing it was the best option to dismiss Broad.
“Not, to be honest,” replied Cummins when he was asked after the day’s play whether he thought of pitching the ball when Broad was taking on each of his bouncers.
“Every ball to Stuart you feel like you’re in the game. He does hit a couple of them clean but it still feels like you’ve got enough catchers out there. A couple of them only just missed our fielders,” Cummins said.
“Smithy (is) driving that. Us bowlers are all happy to follow along. “It’s a plan that’s worked all summer and again, they got a few runs but I still think we got a few wickets there is the end and the pitch was pretty flat and the ball was starting to get a bit soft. So, it didn’t feel like we were going to get too many genuine nicks,” he further added.
Cummins justified his thoughts and had a very good point. Throughout the Ashes, the England tailenders have not been able to counter the short pitch stuff against the Australian speedsters. Even former Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting said it during the Perth Tests that the Aussie quicks are just too good for the English tailenders.
Cummins further stated that they would try to alter their strategy only when they find the lower order batsman looking quite comfortable against his quick bouncers. Cummins said that they have different plans for each batsman.
“I think you’ve got different plans to each batsman,” Cummins said. “We’re lucky over here, the wickets have been a little bit quicker.
“In Melbourne, it wasn’t as quick so we didn’t feel we could use it as much.
“We’ve got Moeen Ali a couple of times with the short ball and the tail, just about all of them have got out (to the short ball) at some stage.
“For us that’s our Plan A, it’s the way we think we’re going to get them out for the cheapest amount of runs and quicker than any other tactic.
“A lot of the time when they’re batting the pitch is starting to get tired, we’re probably a little bit tired and the ball’s been soft a couple of the times where it doesn’t feel like it’s got that zip to snick them off.
“Once they show they’re really playing it well and keenly and doesn’t look like it’s going to be an option to get them out we would move to a different tactic but it’s been working so far.”
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