Phil Simmons, the former West Indies coach currently serving as a specialist coach for Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup, believes the tournament will not see teams register scores in the 250s and 260s, something which was seen in IPL 2024.
“I think the big thing that we’ve been trying to get them to understand is the adaptation. For instance, we played here and after five or six overs you can see it’s not going to be a 170 wicket, but we were trying to get to 150 because we know we’d be in the game then.
“As we’ve seen in most of the other games around the tournament, it’s not going to be an IPL-type season with 250s and 260s. So that adaptation and that understanding of the situation of the game and what they have to do.
“I think Sese (Bau) showed what we’ve been trying to get into everybody’s head the way he played that day so that’s, what we, that’s the main objective of me being just trying to get them to understand that part of the game,” said Simmons in the press conference ahead of PNG’s Group C clash against Uganda on Thursday.
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PNG put up a valiant fight against co-hosts West Indies on a slow Guyana pitch, though they ended up losing. Simmons said seeing the joyfulness in the PNG camp about playing the game at the highest stage has been a source of happiness for him.
“The joy of playing the game, which is something I love to see, and giving everything when they go out in the middle, giving everything when we come to practice, it’s a part of my game and it’s a part of what I like to see in teams that I work with.
“So, seeing that and seeing the energy they have, I remember the first practice session, the energy in just the warm-ups, I was like, how are we going to practice today? But they love it and the enjoyment of being at the World Cup and representing PNG is huge, so I have enjoyed that.
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Simmons also insisted PNG are eager to improve on their mistakes from the defeat to West Indies when they take the field against Uganda. “The mood is just that we made a couple of mistakes against West Indies and we want to correct those, do as well as we did in the first game, but just add that one, two per cent to our game. There’s a few little things we identify that we need to make sure that we do a little bit better.”
On the other hand, in their T20 World Cup debut, Uganda were given a 125-run thrashing by a more formidable Afghanistan. Head coach Abhay Sharma admitted the team’s lack of experience, especially in playing under lights, but felt the side has it in them to rise in international cricket, citing India’s example.
“Uganda is a baby of the World Cup, to be honest. That’s just a new country to the international, this is the first experience they are facing under lights also. So now they have experienced that. But this team might take a little time.
“We have to be really patient with these kinds of players because if you remember in 1975, India played their first World Cup and if I’m not wrong, they played all 60 overs for 36 (very few) runs – whole 60 overs. So, India was just new to the World Cup, same with Uganda you never know after 15 – 20 years you find that Uganda is holding the trophy somewhere,” said Sharma.
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