Bayliss wants proper cricket shots in T20s

Cricket365
March 13, 2016

England head coach Trevor Bayliss rued his side's dramatic collapse in the second T20 against South Africa, after they lost seven wickets for 14 runs, saying he'd like to see better batting technique shown.

England collapsed to 171 all out after being well on course for 200 plus with three wickets down. Bayliss felt this was down to batsmen trying to hit the ball out the ground, and thus mistiming it.

England lost the T20 series two nil as a result, after AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla put on a century opening stand and the Proteas chased the 172 required with nine wickets in hand.

Bayliss told ecb.co.uk: "We've got to approach our batting a bit more, instead of trying to whack the ball for fours and sixes, we've got to play more cricket shots.

"In India, the wickets and grounds are a bit more similar. So you only have to play cricket shots and the ball will go for four or six.

"The last couple of games we've got into a little bit of a habit of hitting the ball into the top of the stand. And we hit a lot of balls – in the last T20 matches – straight into the hands of fielders.

"It gets down to a bit of better execution. Our batting it looked like we would score 200 at least, but we fell in a hole again. Some of it our own doing, some of it not.

"We've got to learn and rebound from this. We've got to play South Africa in about three weeks' time. There’s some hard work to do between now and then."

After the match, England skipper Eoin Morgan had said that they were not going to panic, and that two defeats were hardly a prophecy of doom when it came to the World Twenty20 in India next month.

Bayliss agreed: "The T20 game is one of those formats, which can change very quickly and that can happen from game to game as well.

"The main thing will be not to worry about it too much. We have played some good cricket. (We have to) get back home, probably recover mentally as much as physically, it’s been a long five months.

"And hopefully that freshens the boys up. They know they can play good cricket against these players."