T20 WC: Willing to do ugly job if it helps my team, says SA pacer Pretorius
Nov 02, 2021
Dubai [UAE], November 2 : South Africa bowler Dwaine Pretorius said that he is happy to do an ugly but effective job with the ball as long as it benefits the team.
Proteas captain Temba Bavuma has regularly entrusted his all-rounder to bowl the crucial death overs where he uses a mixture of slower-ball variations to restrict opposition batters.
Speedsters Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, plus ICC Men's T20I Player Rankings No.1 bowler Tabraiz Shamsi, have all caught the eye ahead of Tuesday's clash against Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi, but Pretorius is happy to plug away even if his skills are arguably not the prettiest.
"If I can do a job for the team, again, and put us in a better situation, I'm willing to do that ugly job if you want to call it that - something that doesn't always necessarily look the prettiest but it's very effective. And I've built my whole career on that. So, I'm trying to do the best job that I can do for the team," said Pretorius in an official ICC release.
"Look, obviously I think the dangers at the death are being predictable. So, I'm trying to vary my pace and my lengths quite a bit even though my line is the same, keeping the guys guessing. I'm trying to make sure I'm bowling to the batters' plan Cs and Ds instead of their plan A. It's not an ego battle out there; it's trying to be effective as much as possible," he added.
Pretorius has identical figures of three for 17 in South Africa's last two Super 12s Group 1 games, wins against West Indies and Sri Lanka, and shed some light on his variations.
The 32-year-old added: "I've worked a lot on different variations of slow balls. So, it's definitely something that I really have focused on. Obviously, in a T20 World Cup, I think if you only go to one option you might be in trouble."
"So, I'm really trying to mix it up, make sure that even though at the moment guys might be thinking that I'm just going to go wide every time when they face me, even though the line might be predictable, you're still not sure which ball is going to come out. Having five options in terms of what I'm looking to do there is something that I've really worked hard on and at the moment it's going well," he added.
