Bengaluru, Apr 23 (PTI) Tim David understands it’s tough to perform consistently as a finisher, but the Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter has come to terms with that eventuality, saying it’s all about not judging yourself “harshly” in times of failure.
David’s bruising willow down the order has played a massive role in RCB winning their maiden IPL title last year, and in this iteration too he has shown glimpses of his power-hitting.
“We have a bit of a team and as a middle-order batter in T20 cricket, you can’t do finishing every game, so if you expect to do that, it becomes really difficult, so we just kind of play and try and enjoy,” said David during a select media gathering.
“So a massive part of the IPL is not putting extra pressure on yourself and judging yourself harshly when you don’t come out on top,” he added.
But David gave whole lot of credit to RCB top-order for making the lives of late order batters like him, Romario Shepherd and Jitesh Sharma much easier.
“So as a middle order batter, you have to solve a problem. So, we’re very lucky that we have a brilliant top order and they’re very consistent but also put us in a good position.
“So, a lot of the time I’m going and putting the finishing pieces, and we have myself, Jitesh from Romario, so that takes the pressure off us,” he said.
David also banked on his years of experience playing in the middle order and targeted net sessions to deliver in crunch times.
“Fortunately, I’ve played my whole career in the middle-order, so, I understand certain risks. But certainly in practice, you have to get your volume of balls in because you don’t get to bat all the time in the matches.
“So, you have to be able to hit yorkers, you have to have ways of scoring against different bowling and you understand after playing for a long time the patterns the bowlers will try to use to slow you down.
“So they’ve got lots of weapons in their arsenal now and you’ll see the summary on the TV, they talk about where the bowlers can target and they’ve obviously graphed out where batters score quickly and what they’re weak against. So yeah, you build those foundations up and then certainly that becomes your strengths,” he said.
The diligent practice sessions have also made the Australian batter a better player against spin, something he believes has contributed immensely to his success in the IPL.
“I’ve always felt I played spin better than pace and then you come to India and you get challenged, facing the best spin bowlers in the best competition. It’s a challenge and the role I was batting in, you only come in the last couple of overs and you’re facing generally the best leg-spinner or the most attacking spinner the opposition have.
“I wasn’t happy with how I was going against the spin and the approach I had and it wasn’t really getting me anywhere so I kind of had a rethink with my coach back at home (Jim Allenby) and we talked about how I wanted to play spin and maybe there were some technical adjustments we could make.
“I suppose I had some good results early when I made that change, and so there was enough evidence there to suggest that the path we’d taken was an improvement,” he explained.
Beyond the technical changes, David reckoned that putting a spinner under pressure was the best way to deal with slow bowlers.
“I feel like I bat best when I’m batting on instinct and so if the bowler bowls a perfect ball then you play that with the same respect but at the same time if the bowler misses that mark then get after them and they feel the pressure a lot more.
“Spin bowling is tough when you’re under pressure because if you’re bowling to a batter who’s very tentative, you can dictate terms, you can try and spin the ball both ways.
“Whereas if you miss a ball a little bit short or a little bit full and the batter hits you 25 rows back, that’s scary I reckon, so for sure trying to put them under pressure,” he added. PTI UNG UNG AH AH
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