Coach Boucher on Polly, Rushil and the positives to take…
By MI New York Media
A tough night, but a night that saw a lot of heart put in. Heart to fight with the bat when the chips were down, heart to pull it back with the ball when the batters were just tonking it around.
MI New York Head Coach, Mark Boucher, saw a lot of positives the team could take out of their first game against Washington Freedom, starting with how the team bounced back after a tough start with the ball when Mitchel Owen was carting it around to all parts.
“We knew that from watching the game before, we wanted to bowl pace off,” Boucher said at the post-match press conference. “We erred in our lines a little bit. I think the plans we had in place were decent plans. Maybe the execution wasn’t there because he put pressure on us from ball one. If you have a look at all the other batters, we managed to keep their strike-rates down to a decent rate.”
Rushil Ugarkar, the star from last year’s MLC triumph, was very impressive, bowling with a lot of heart and pulling things back in the death overs.
“He was fantastic tonight. When the ball was travelling all around, he was the positive in our bowling lineup. When I got here last year, to see how far he has come now, credit to his attitude. He is very coachable. He always wants to learn. He is a youngster and he sits and has conversations with Mitch (McClenaghan), myself and all the senior players. He is thirsty for knowledge. He works really hard on the execution. He prepares really well as well. He is a great prospect for the US going forward.”
The other positive, obviously, was the centurion, the ever-young Kieron Pollard.
“There are a lot of positives we can take out of this game. The way Polly (Kieron Pollard) batted at the end, showed that if you stay at the crease for long enough and get a couple of balls off the middle, it can be easy,” he said.
So what’s the fix now? With back to back games, there’s no time to dwell over this loss.
“One fix I think is to get the cobwebs out of the system. Then obviously if we can pick up wickets upfront, it will be nice. That’s the only way to stem the flow of runs on this wicket, and we showed that in the last five overs.”
The Texas Super Kings are up next. It’s a matchup we love. It’s always an iconic battle. Bring. It. On.
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