“Sunny Patel has been the surprise package for us this year”: Mitchell McClenaghan
By MI New York Media
With figures of 4-0-37-2, including the wickets of Adries Gous and the dangerous Mitchell Owen, Sunny Patel has been one of the biggest positives in the MI New York bowling attack this season. Bowling Coach, Mitchell McClenaghan was equally in praise of the veteran bowler in his post-match press conference chat. Excerpts..
On the MINY bowlers’ performance so far
We’ve got experienced bowlers in our unit. I think tonight we were a little off, and I think we’ve been all through the tournament so far. The plans have been good but the execution has been lacking. Teams have been able to navigate around the big guys and we haven’t been able to support around them.
Thoughts on the league so far
It's nice. Another challenge. I love the game, love sharing knowledge. It’s nice seeing the talent of the US players across all teams actually. It’s getting stronger every year. I have been enjoying the league.
Bowling plans as the bowlers fought it out towards the end
It is still in our minds how Texas brought the game back against us in the first fixture. You’ve got to keep reminding yourself as a bowling unit that if you can take it to the last over, you always have a chance. Sometimes you can panic with the ball and try and think that you have to get wickets earlier in the game than you actually need to. You can take it deeper and build pressure. I must commend our bowlers, they did that this evening. Unfortunately, we were just a little bit short.
On Rushil Ugarkar having a tough start with the ball
He's an exciting talent. He moves the ball at the top which is why he got the second over today. We missed our line, like we did against Finn Allen and now against Mitch Owen, they will make you pay. He’s a big man and hits it strong and hits the ball hard. I’m not going to come hard on the bloke. We will assess and pump him up. Even though Mark Chapman got them across the line in the last over, he (Rushil) showed some great skills. He just missed a couple of yorkers against him. Lot of positives. He was just against an absolute beast at the top of the innings today.
On Sunny Patel’s superb spell
Sunny has been the surprise package of our side this year. He bowled really well in the warm-up matches for us. He probably missed his length a couple of times trying to search for wickets. Sometimes that happens. I think he’s bowled exceptionally throughout the tournament. He’s become a banker. We are missing Rashid (Khan). He has filled that hole superbly. We’re missing Nosh (Kenjige) as well. He’s filled that role really nicely. He’s a mainstay in this side. I really like how he’s been able to hold his lengths against some of the world’s best players.
On the batting unit not having clicked so far
It’s another batter-friendly wicket. The outfield is so fast as well. Our batting is going to click. You look at our unit, we are getting 180s, and we haven’t really had Nicholas Pooran come off. You’ve got some world class players, when they hit form, they don’t stop. What I must commend from the Washington Freedom was that their fielding was exceptional. Get got a hand to a lot of balls and saved 10-15 runs in the field.
Thoughts on having Pollard bowl the 20th over
The plan tonight was to use our resources early. We had to use Boult and Naveen early to try and put pressure on them. Pollard’s over was really good and kept us in the fixture. Historically, if you look at Polly’s 20th overs which he’s bowled in the past, he has the knack of getting the ball to the keeper. Whatever he does, he gets good bounce, he is hard to hit. He can be difficult if you are chasing 10 runs in the over. He’s not a bad man to have a backup to bowl the 20th over.
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