IPL 2014: Gary Kirsten says that inconsistency has hurt Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils has had a disappointing start in IPL 2014. Coach Gary Kirsten admits that an inconsistent batting and bowling performance is the reason for their bottom most position in the points table.

“Our bowling has not been up to the mark and the batting has been inconsistent. We need to do something good. In T20 format, we need to do a lot.” the former South African cricketer said.

Despite losing two out of the nine games so far, the former Indian coach is hopeful that the team can show some improvement by winning the next few games. “We need to make best of the conditions and need to improve a lot. One or two players need to score big runs. We need couple of partnerships to win the game,” he said.

According to Kirsten, Delhi, who is close to being knocked out of the tournament, has an influential skipper in Kevin Pietersen. “When he is playing well, he goes for the big score. He has been a fantastic captain. Younger players look to him for tips and inspiration,” Gary said.

Having scored 97 runs in 6 games so far, Pietersen has not been in his best form. Gary backed the England cricketer and said, “Like any captain, when he’s playing well he can add another 20 per cent to his game. He got going in the last game, deciding to open to free him up a little bit. Looks like he has got something going for him, and hope it is the start of something good for him,”

However, DD’s talented batsman such as Dinesh Karthik and JP Duminy did not fail to display their brilliant batting performance for their team. “JP Duminy and Dinesh Karthik have been good with their bats and scoring well. We should have got bigger scores.” the 46 year old Gary said.

Gary, who coached team India during World Cup 2011 and played an instrumental role in India’s victory claims that coaching a T20 team is different from that of an ODI or Test team.

“Coaching a national side involves a lot more pressure, and performance is at stake. Whereas, when you coach a domestic T20 side, you can do much more as coach. You can do a lot more with new players, you can pick squad and that’s a very different challenge,” he said.

Criticism has been raised over sending Duminy, who has been scoring for DD, in the 6th position. “You want your best batsman facing more number of balls. But you also want to see best of both worlds, and you want him to be finishing. It’s a bit of catch 22,” Gary reacted.

When asked about Mohammad Shami, who has replaced Nathan Coulter-Nile, Gary said, “He is our key bowler. Loss of Coulter-Nile early in the tournament has hit our bowling. Shami has been improving.”