Eric Simons joked that he wasn’t tall enough to put his arm around Proteas seamer Marco Jansen’s shoulder after the mauling the young fast bowler suffered against the might of India in his last outing at the Cricket World Cup.
While Jansen’s chastening experience of conceding 94 runs in 9.4 overs was by no means a laughing matter, especially when Indian captain Rohit Sharma was having his way with the 2.06 metre tall fast bowler in the opening Powerplay, Simons wanted to show that it was also by no stretch of the imagination the end of the world.
The 61-year-old bowling coach has seen many youngsters overawed by the occasion, and playing in front of 70 000 passionate Indian supporters at one of the most eminent sporting theatres in the world certainly was a helluva affair, but he’s also seen many return stronger for it.
“We’ve had a chat this morning, and the real sense about him was that he went away from him, and started concentrating on the opposition a little bit,” Simons explained.
“That sometimes happens in those pressure moments when you are up against the quality of batters we were playing against. It was a great learning for him.
“I had actually said to the bowling group, to their frustration, I was hoping that we would have some tough situations and we did. It was a great learning experience for him as the individual, but also the entire bowling group.
“It’s not that he’s now not capable of bowling the way he has done. We’ve obviously seen that. Now it’s a case of getting him back there.”
Prior to the Indian match-up, Jansen had been one of the stand-out bowlers at this World Cup with 16 wickets at an average of 20.06. Equally, he has been particularly prolific with the new ball where he has routinely picked up wickets in the Powerplay to set up South Africa’s bowling task.
It’s for these reasons that Simons believes now is certainly not the time to throw out the baby with the bath water and begin tinkering technically with Jansen. Instead, he will look to build his confidence ahead of the final league encounter against Afghanistan on Friday, and more importantly next week’s semi-final.
“It’s not a technical conversation. There is potential and performance,” Simons said.
“And he’s bowled at a certain level, so when you see a performance that’s a little bit off, what’s the noise between the way you performed and the way you have performed?
“We have four points that have come out of our conversation, that if he does come under pressure again, that we address those things. None of them are technical. The hallmark of this campaign has been the honest conversations that we’ve had.”
Simons also ruled out the possibility of senior statesman Kagiso Rabada returning to his previous role of opening the bowling with the knockouts on the horizon, claiming the team are comfortable with the change-bowler role he has performed during this World Cup.
“I don’t think so. (taking the new ball). What he(Rabada) is doing for us is particularly important,” he said.
The way he’s bowling … he is almost performing two roles for us. He can pull it back if it gets away from us, and if the opposition are under pressure, he can keep the pressure up.
“To have that experience coming in, in some respects the business part of that Powerplay in many situations is important. I don’t think we’re going to get carried away with changes due to the frustration of one particular Powerplay.
“We have been outstanding in the Powerplay, so I think the role he plays is quite a good one. We’ve spoken from the start about a bowling unit that understands its roles and the way they fit into those roles. We don’t want to over-analyse one performance.”
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