“He is fairly high risk with the bat…..”: DC assistant coach Shane Watson on Phil Salt

Chennai [India], May 10 (ANI): Match number 55 of the Indian Premier League is to be played between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk stadium on Wednesday. Ahead of the match, Delhi Capitals Assistant Coach Shane Watson expressed his belief that Phil Salt will be the difference maker as the wicket-keeper batsman is incredibly dangerous with his high-risk batting style.

Delhi Capitals have won four out of the last five matches in the IPL and are currently running high on confidence. Unfortunately, they are still at the bottom of the league table with eight points. Whereas, CSK in their last five matches have just won two games and are second in the league table with 13 points.
When asked about what impact Phil Salt have on the team as well as on the matches, DC Assistant Coach Shane Watson said, “Well obviously the balance that Phil [Salt] provides as a wicket-keeper is a starting point and knowing is his scoring ability when he’s able to get in and get going. And we just knew the way he plays, you are just gonna have to be patient because he is fairly high risk with the way he bats. But that also makes him so incredibly dangerous when up and going like, we have seen the games where he scored the runs into the two 50s that he’s got, it’s against world-class bowling and he’s taking him down.”

In five matches so far, Salt has scored 151 runs at an average of 30.20 and a strike rate of 177.64. He has scored two half-centuries this season, with best score of 87.

Watson said that though his side’s bowling had clicked earlier, its batting took some time to click.

Former Australian All-Rounder said, “The team’s batting unit had taken a little bit of time to click while the bowling had done so earlier.”

Watson also commented on the absence of Rishab Pant, “It was a big challenge to fill the void left by the absence of Rishab Pant. It was a bigger challenge than it was thought to be. The batting has taken a little bit of time to click.”

Meanwhile, pacer Anrich Nortje had to fly back to South Africa following a personal emergency and missed Delhi Capitals’ last game against Royal Challenger Banglore. He will be unavailable for the game against CSK as well on Wednesday.

Assistant Coach said he expects Nortje to return to the IPL for the back end of the tournament.