Simmons wary of bowling importance
Published:Tuesday | June 8, 2021 | 12:12 AMLennox Aldred/Gleaner Writer
West Indies head coach Phil Simmons is already summing up what he thinks will be the X factor in the upcoming two-Test series between his side and the visiting South Africans in St Lucia starting Thursday.
With the Windies and South Africa sitting in sixth and seventh place, respectively, in the ICC Test Championship, with a 56-point gap between them, Simmons believes the team that executes best in the field will hold all the marbles.
“I think for both teams, their stronger suit is their bowling and I think that’s where the competition lies in the series,” Simmons said in a press conference yesterday. “I think whichever team bowls better and hold their catches better should come out on top.”
Despite the South Africans losing a number of their experienced batsman such as AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, and Faf du Plessis, Simmons knows all too well that the Proteas cannot be underestimated.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
“They are very strong at the top with their captain (Dean Elgar), and later down with people like Quinton de Kock, but you still have to get everyone out and we have to bowl well in the middle overs because they seem to have batting all the way down,” he said.
Despite the cautious approach by the West Indies camp, the frailties of the South African batting cannot be understated, with the team managing only three centuries in their last eight Test matches and the side making over 300 runs only twice in 15 innings.
The Proteas will, however, be banking on Elgar, vice-captain Temba Bavuma and Rassie Van der Dussen to bring them the runs with the bowling unit having the firepower of pacers Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, and Anrich Nortje.
The West Indies will be encouraged by the performances of their batting unit in the last two series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, with captain Kraigg Brathwaite, Nkrumah Bonner, Kyle Mayers, and Joshua Da Silva all looking the part at the international level.
With Shai Hope also expected to return, the Windies should start as slight favourites, despite their last and only win against the Proteas coming in the 1992 one-off Test in Barbados when current coach Phil Simmons opened the innings with Desmond Haynes.
Now, both teams have gone through different phases, and Simmons is keen to emphasise that the marginal improvements in the regional sides game needs to be consistent.
“We have to play better than we played in our last Test match,” he said. “We know the rich vein and quality that South Africa have and we just have to step it up and move one per cent better than we were in our last game.”