Mitchell Starc reveals conflict over Steve Smith instructions on AB de Villiers

[jnaveen1980]

Australia seamer Mitchell Starc has revealed he disagreed with captain Steve Smith’s plan to bowl to South Africa’s AB de Villiers at St George’s Park.

But Starc said he had no choice but to obey his skipper, who told him to deliberately send balls down the leg-side to the dangerous batsman in order to get him off the strike in the next over.

Starc’s last two balls in the 117th over in the Proteas’ first innings were all bowled just wide of leg-stump, with De Villiers unable to reach them.

‘I can’t say I was too happy with that either,’ Starc said when asked about the tactic.

‘Look, if the captain tells me to do something, I’m going to do it, aren’t I?’

De Villiers scored a majestic unbeaten 126 in the first innings, which helped the home side post a healthy lead, and ultimately go on to win by six wickets on day four.

The Australian bowlers have struggled against De Villiers, and Starc added they had to change their approach when bowling to him.

‘I think you’ve got to think outside the box a lot more with him. A good ball’s still a good ball to any batter in world cricket. It’s just bowling them more consistently, changing the field a little bit and maybe cutting off a couple of scoring areas for him as well,’ Starc said.

‘I think that’s one thing we didn’t do well enough to him in the first innings [in Port Elizabeth]. We didn’t bowl enough good balls to him.

‘He’s allowed to play good cricket shots, but I think we didn’t bowl that really good balls consistently enough to him to build a bit of extra pressure on him and make him play the false shot.

‘It’s something we’ve spoken about as a bowling group and as a team moving forward in this series and hopefully, that starts in Cape Town and we can get him out fairly cheaply,’ he said.

The third Test at Newlands in Cape Town begins next Friday and both sides will be looking to take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series.

http://www.sacricketmag.com/didnt-bowl-well-ab/

 

[big_gamer007]

Nothing wrong with Smith’s tactics.. Any sensible captain would have done the same..

 

[IndianFan2018]

Not wise to discuss team tactics in public ...

Smell rebel in Starc's comments against Bradman ..not looking good for AUS !

Same points could have been discussed in team meeting.

Never wash your dirty linen in Public, not good for all concerned mate

 

[jnaveen1980]

Ashwin has indirectly revealed about Dhoni's tactics of negative bowling as well. In this case Smith may be right. Some captains start with negative bowling from the get go. That is where i disagree with.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Why is he speaking about team tactcs in the media?

 

[jnaveen1980]

Recently both Bhuvneshwar Shami said something about Kohlis strategy

 

[IndianFan2018]

Recently both Bhuvneshwar Shami said something about Kohlis strategy

Both complimented strategy of Kohli... here Starc is is showing displeasure in his captains tactic !

 

[rhony]

Absolutely zero advantage of airing this in public.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

They're playing games.

 

[JaDed]

Starc isn't been used to second best bowler I guess ,Rabada clearly has been better.

 

[Indiafan]

Starc isn't been used to second best bowler I guess ,Rabada clearly has been better.

Because his captain has not been asking him to bowl wide down the leg side

 

[JaDed]

Because his captain has not been asking him to bowl wide down the leg side

Against one batsman, don't think he said anything about others.

 

[Rishta Aunty]

Gotta chalk this down to ABD's genius. But Smith telling that to his scariest, lead quickie is pretty defeatist.

 

[Hasan123]

Don't like the negative thinking from Smith to try and not even get ABD out is extremely disappointing. I hope they come with a better plan than that.

 

[Kashmirilion]

They're playing games.

Spot on mate! If anyone knows Aussies well then they should know they are masters of psychological warfare in cricket. It's less to do with revealing captains tactics and more to do with playing mind games with AB "we let you get away with scoring runs and it won't be happening again".

 

[Ab Fan]

With Rabada gone, this series is already in Australia's pockets.

The only thing to be seen if de Villiers can somehow fluke an inning and won a match, albeit draw a series because SA have very dull chance to even save this series, let alone winning it.

 

[IndianFan2018]

With Rabada gone, this series is already in Australia's pockets.

The only thing to be seen if de Villiers can somehow fluke an inning and won a match, albeit draw a series because SA have very dull chance to even save this series, let alone winning it.

That makes SA test team too dependent on one bowler to win series at home, pretty low fall for SA (once touted as Best Test team in the world ) !

 

[Ab Fan]

That makes SA test team too dependent on one bowler to win series at home, pretty low fall for SA (once touted as Best Test team in the world ) !

This is what happens when senior players are about to retire.

Markaram will take over after he gets some experience while de Kock needs to learn to get the mindset right(talent is there in him) and play with responsibility.

And well, Rabada is Rabada. He is too good.