CSK bowling coach Dwayne Bravo is confident that their bowlers will perform well in their key match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Saturday.
RCB have a strong batting line-up comprising Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik among others.
“We prepare well as a bowling group, we have very good plans. And tomorrow (Saturday) is no different, RCB will have to try to beat us off our plans. And if they do that, well played to them. But if they don’t, then... next season for them,” Bravo said on the eve of the match.
He was also all praise for pacer Simarjeet Singh who has made good use of the opportunities following Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana’s unavailability.
Simarjeet has played three matches so far, claiming 5 wickets at an economy of 9.27, including a 3/26 against Rajasthan Royals.
“He’s a bowler who has basically bowled the fastest in our group. Every team will like a bowler like Simar because he bowls with a lot of pace and he’s very aggressive by nature,” Bravo said.
“Even against our own batsmen in the nets, sometimes I get scared with the way he bowls... Very happy to see that he has finally got an opportunity to play after the work he’s put in... and he’s performing well.”
RCB’s assistant coach Malolan Rangarajan said they wouldn’t be thinking about chasing or defending totals.
“The good thing is that it is crystal clear what we need to do. Doesn’t matter if it is a 20-over game or a five, six-over game. For us, it might be 3.1 or 3.4 overs (to chase to pip CSK on NRR if it comes to that) because there are other intricacies within that.
“In the last two games our captain has not won the toss. It goes to show how we have been playing. I don’t think we will be spending too much time on whether we need to bat first or bowl first. We will take that as it comes. We have been defending targets... That is the way I think we will be able to restrict opponents,” Rangarajan said.
“We are going to go there, try to stay consistent to what we have done.”
