New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) Delhi Capitals (DC) bowling coach Munaf Patel has lavished praise on South Africa fast bowler Lungi Ngidi, describing him as a smart, self-aware bowler who understands Indian conditions well and is among the easiest overseas players to work with in the dressing room.

Ngidi has filled the void left by Mitchell Starc’s absence so far by relying on his deceptive slower balls, which dip late to fox batters. An instance of this was seen in DC’s six-wicket win over the Mumbai Indians, where Ngidi trapped Suryakumar Yadav lbw for 51, when he just looked to accelerate.

Ngidi’s slower balls have fetched him 11 wickets at a tight economy rate of 6.8 and a strike rate of 14. “If you want to become a good bowler in today’s era, then you will have to bring good variations. So he has slower balls and continues to play for South Africa. He has also played in this year’s Men’s T20 World Cup in India.

“So he has ideas of bowling on these wickets. He has been in the IPL for a long time and with other teams. He was there last year as well. So he has an idea of bowling his variations as per conditions and Indian wickets. He is not like other bowlers, who try to bowl 150 kmph and get hit.

“He stays in his own area, and whenever there is a need for variations, he uses his own slower ones or yorkers,” said Munaf in the pre-match press conference, ahead of DC taking on Gujarat Titans at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

Munaf, who played 13 Tests, 70 ODIs, and three T20Is for India, also spoke of the close working relationship he has built with Ngidi at DC. “If we talk about Lungi, he is a good bowler in his area. He is a very good bowler for his own bowling – I can tell you this.

“I talk to him every day, because my job is to talk to the bowler, and to satisfy him or to add more to his armoury if there is anything, like a slower one or a yorker. Lungi is a good person; he is easy to handle. He is not like other foreigners, who are difficult to handle,” he said.

Turning to left-arm seamer T Natarajan, who’s done well with slower balls at the back end, Munaf said his work with Natarajan during the IPL window is focused squarely on reinforcing the pacer’s strengths.

“I believe that you will have to do more bowling. He was injured only last year. He was playing day cricket and one-day cricket. But the injury he had was prolonged. Because of that, he was not able to play, neither on days nor on one day. That is why he has decided, for now, that he will only play T20.

“But I think that in the next year, he will play days and one-day games, according to how he is bowling. I don’t work with him the whole year because he plays domestically from there, and he works with his coaches.

“But in these 2-3 months, I work on bowling only because we have trainers who work on his fitness. I always ask him to bowl as per his own strengths. He has slower ones and yorkers; he is a specialist in death overs. So I do the work on where his speciality is,” he said.

On Mukesh Kumar, Munaf said the Indian pacer has shown clear improvement after working specifically on his new-ball discipline. “I have been working with Mukesh for the last few months because he had a problem with the line and length last year. A lot of people questioned it.

“Whenever you play, your new ball will be 100 per cent better, and the test match length will be good. So I work with Mukesh on the same variation, and I work more on using the new ball well because he is mainly a new-ball bowler. A new ball bowler will have to put more overs in the power play or put more overs in between. So I always expect him to play as a main bowler,” he said.

Munaf also outlined his clear-eyed view of what separates winning and losing sides in T20 cricket, which is placing enormous value on picking wickets in the powerplay, something which DC have done well so far.

“I see T20 cricket in one way – if you take wickets in six overs, no team will get to 200. When the partnership is good and that six-over phase in power-play is used well, then you can cross 200; otherwise, you can’t. Now I can say that all the teams that are stopping under 200, it is just that the power play is very important.

“If two to three wickets are taken out and you are able to keep them to 40-42 runs, then it is very difficult to go to 200 unless you are bowling very badly in the last six overs. So I don’t think that if any team uses power play well, they would let them cross 200,” he said.

In his role as bowling coach, Munaf, a member of India’s 2011 ODI World Cup-winning team, said his job is more about guiding bowlers rather than dictating terms. “My work is to make them understand and get them to bowl according to their plans. Basically, most of the work is done by the bowlers. For example, how to read the batsman or bowl Test match lengths.

“But when to bowl, how much to bowl, they have to understand according to the situation. You cannot bowl continuously in the same way, even if you are getting hit – it is not possible to do that. In between, if you are getting swing on the new ball, you can bowl longer. If you are not getting a new ball, then you have to come to your variations,” he said.

Spelling out his broader coaching philosophy, Munaf noted that international bowlers require far less handholding than their domestic counterparts. “Talking to the players is 100 per cent important. You have to guide them and chat about the wicket conditions. Just like Lungi Ngidi, who comes from South Africa, but yes, he has played the World Cup before.

“It is about discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition batters, although weaknesses are fewer now as batters play more shots in the T20 format. My job is to prepare the bowlers going into the match. Some bowlers bowl before match day, while some rest, and it depends on them. It is then up to the trainers whether they need to do strength and conditioning.

“You do not have to spend too much time with international bowlers, but with domestic players, you tell them how to handle pressure and how to bowl in the first six and the last six overs. Whereas internationals already know how to manage these situations. It is great that Axar is an all-rounder. Both Kuldeep and Axar are there to guide the likes of Vipraj Nigam when playing in the middle overs, and that helps,” he concluded.

–IANS

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